The cricket world was rocked yet again by allegations of money influencing cricket matches, this time when three Rajasthan Royals players — Ajit Chandila, S. Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan — were arrested on Wednesday in Mumbai for “spot-fixing”.
It is against this murky backdrop that the Sunrisers Hyderabad take on the Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Friday evening.
The equation is simple for the Sunrisers: win, and stay in the hunt — mathematically at least for a spot in the playoffs, or lose, and bid goodbye to their chances.
Also, there is the small matter of pride at stake, having lost two matches on the trot.
It is made even more galling by the fact that their famed bowling attack was largely responsible for both defeats.
Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina launched a calculated attack on the Eagles when Chennai Super Kings played them here last week while Mumbai Indians’ marauder Kieron Pollard, with all subtlety of a fox let loose in a chicken coop, butchered them at the Wankhede two days ago.
Still, the Eagles will be a proud bunch after their inspired show this season. Nobody had expected the team to perform as well as they did in their debut season. Their bowling unit has earned, deservedly so, a reputation as the most dangerous attack this season and has largely been responsible for what success the Sunrisers have tasted.
However, it will be interesting to see what sort of tactics they adopt on a Hyderabad pitch that seems to have undergone a complete transformation.
The Sunrisers banked on the slow nature of the track and the clinical precision of their bowlers to negate other teams at home thus far in the season but the last home match, against Chennai, would have nixed that belief. It produced the highest total by a team at this venue in an IPL match (223/3) as well as the highest total by the Sunrisers batsmen (148/5).
The visitirs, whatever their current predicament, are comfortably placed compared to the Eagles as far as the playoffs are concerned. With 10 wins from 15 matches, they have a four-point advantage over the home side, who have up eight wins from their 15 games. While Chennai and Mumbai have sealed their berths in the playoffs, Rajasthan look very likely to be the third side to make it.