The Rajasthan Royals struggled to find any form in the early part of IPL 7 during the UAE leg of the tournament, and won only one of their first three matches.
However, they have won four games in succession, and are now in third position on the table, behind the powerful pace setters, Chennai Super Kings and the Punjab Kings XI.
Their opponents on Thursday, the Sunrisers Hyderabad, have managed just two wins to their name so far, from the six games that they have played. They looked as if they were going to record a third victory last time out, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, but in the 19th over, AB de Villiers launched an astonishing assault on the bowling of Dale Steyn and took the game away from them.
The Royals have achieved their elevated status, despite the fact that their biggest match winning and captain, Shane Watson, has yet to strike his best form, and make a telling contribution with the bat.
The conditions in Ahmedabad are expected to favour the spinners, and the Royals will be hoping that their 42 year old leg spinner Pravin Tambe, will continue his mesmeric form. Tambe’s approach to bowling in the IPL is somewhat unusual.
Most spinners believe that the way to restrict the scoring rate is to take wickets, while Tambe believes the best approach is to keep the runs down and build the pressure on the batsmen, and force the batting side to take risks.
Sunrisers’ two victories have come after their batsmen have set decent targets that have given the bowlers a chance to defend. They will be looking for skipper Shikhar Dhawan, Aaron Finch and David Warner to score the bulk of the side’s runs to give them a chance of scoring a third win.