Daijiworld Media Network

Sharjah, Apr 22 : Hello and welcome to Match 9 of the Indian T20 League between Punjab and Hyderabad. The southern franchise will expect their bowlers to stop the duo with the experience they possess. They would also want their batsmen to put up a better performance as compared to the last game. It is another Aussie tug-of-war in the making, with Finch, Warner, Bailey, Maxwell and Johnson being invloved.

It has been the Maxwell and Miller show for Punjab so far. The two attacking batsmen have scored consecutive fifties and have helped their team chase down 206 and 192. Can they emulate these performances for the third successive time?

Bailey: 'Could not have asked for a better start. We do not want to be chasing those type of scores too much. We are still getting used to the conditions. The facilities in all the grounds have been fantastic. You have to do both (bat first and second) and given our chasing we should have expected that decision. We have couple of changes, Rishi Dhawan and Sandeep Sharma come in.'

Dhawan: 'It is important to win a game early in the tournament. Last game we were short of 20-30 runs but there were lot of positives from that game. Punjab have been chasing large totals but it is a new day and we will restrict them. We will field first because it is a small ground and chasing is easier. The top-order batsmen have to bat longer. We have one

change Irfan Pathan comes in place of Ishant Sharma.'
Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field

Teams:

Hyderabad (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Aaron Finch, David Warner, Lokesh Rahul(w), Venugopal Rao, Darren Sammy, Irfan Pathan, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Punjab (Playing XI): Cheteshwar Pujara, Virender Sehwag, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, George Bailey(c), Akshar Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Mitchell Johnson, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Sandeep Sharma

Preview by Gokul Gopal

After emerging successful in back-to-back high-scoring chases, Punjab are on a roll and they will look to continue their winning run when they face Hyderabad in the 9th match of T20 League 2014, which will take place at the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium. Meanwhile, the Hyderabad, who tasted defeat against Rajasthan in the only match they have played so far, will be eager to get their campaign moving forward when they take on the confident Punjab side.

Punjab:

Captain George Bailey and the Punjab team owners have Glenn Maxwell and David Miller to thank as they have been at the forefront of both of the victories. The Maxwell-Miller combo made a mockery of huge targets with their belligerent batting to ease their side past the line against Chennai and Rajasthan. Maxwell's 95 off 43 and Miller's 54 off 37 helped Punjab overhaul Chennai's total of 205 with 7 deliveries to spare while the Australian came up with a terrific 89 off 45 and the South African hit a blistering 51 off just 19 against Rajasthan to ease Punjab to victory with 8 deliveries to spare in a chase of 192. If they come up with similar fireworks, the Punjab side will be more than delighted, but they also need the others to step up in case these two don't fire. Virender Sehwag has not done much at the top while the lower order has not been tested and it will be interesting to see how they perform in case the Maxwell-Miller combo fails.

What Maxwell and Miller have done with their brilliant showing with their bat, is to eclipse Punjab's poor performance with the ball in both games. Mitchell Johnson has hardly looked threatening and has gone for a few while Parvinder Awana and L Balaji have been handled with utmost contempt by the opposition batsmen. The spinners too have not done much to speak about, although young left-arm spinner Akshar Patel did come up with an economical performance in the second match. Punjab will be hoping that the bowlers show more discipline and find the right lengths, which is imperative going up against a power-packed Hyderabad batting line-up.

Hyderabad:

They might have given Rajasthan a good run in their opening match, but that was not enough to stave off defeat. The main reason they ended up on the losing side in that game was because the performance of the batters. After Aaron Finch's failure, Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner batted well and it looked as though Hyderabad would go on to post a big total. However, the left-handed pair fell in quick succession after a 77-run second wicket stand, and all the middle order could manage was to take their side to a total of 133. While Hyderabad will be eager for the big three - Finch, Dhawan and Warner - to come good, they will be hoping for the ones down the order to make an impact. Darren Sammy is the key batsman in the lower middle order and he will have a big role to play in case it is left up to the numbers five and below to complete the job.

With a quality bowling line-up, Hyderabad posed a stiff challenge to the Rajasthan team, but a mere total of 133 in batting-friendly conditions meant that they had to go down after a fight. Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra got amongst the wickets, as did Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma. Steyn and Ishant were slightly expensive, going at over 7 an over while Sammy had a bad game, conceding more than 9. Karn Sharma, another key leggie in the Hyderabad bowling line-up, did not pick up wickets, but was very frugal in the two overs he bowled. The Hyderabad will be keen for the bowlers to live up to their reputations and stop the Punjabi juggernaut.

Team News:

Punjab are unlikely to make any changes to their batting line-up while they might look at a tweak or two in the bowling department. Awana and Balaji were disappointing in both the matches and the team management might look at leaving one of them out to bring in young pacer Sandeep Sharma, who was impressive in the previous season. Rishi Dhawan was dropped for the match against Rajasthan to make way for Murali Kartik, but considering the left-arm spinner's poor showing in that game, the former could find himself back in the reckoning. Hyderabad, meanwhile, are likely to go in with the same eleven that played in the first game.

Quotes:

I don't get burdened by pressure. Pressure is something that you put on yourself. I put pressure on myself before a game or before I go out to bat. But once when I go out there to bat, I just enjoy it and have a little bit of fun: Glenn Maxwell.