Sunrisers, Titans look to keep chances alive in CLT20

Ranchi: With one win and a defeat, both Sunrisers Hyderabad and Titans will be desperately looking for a victory to stay in contention for a semifinal berth when they face each other in their crucial Champions League Twenty20 match here on Saturday. The two teams are on four points each and a defeat tomorrow would mean that the losing side will be virtually out of the reckoning. After qualifying into the main draw, the Sunrisers got off to a winning start against Trinidad and Tobago before they were bulldozed by Chennai Super Kings, who rode on captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hurricane unbeaten 19-ball 63, here last night. But the fact that the Sunrisers could reach 190 for seven in reply to the Super Kings massive 202-run total, speaks volume about their batting. The Sunrisers undoubtedly would rely on their explosive skipper Shikhar Dhawan, besides opener Parthiv Patel to provide them a solid platform. Both Dhawan and Patel failed to convert good starts into big scores against the Super Kings last night, but come tomorrow they would be careful enough to negotiate Titan's formidable bowling attack led by Morne Morkel and Roelof Van der Merve. Middle-order batsman Darren Sammy, who top-scored with 25-ball 50 yesterday, will be another key player. J P Duminy and Thisara Perera would also be expected to rise to the occasion. The likes of South African speedster Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma and leg-spinner Amit Mishra have a very incisive bowling but they failed to fire in unison against the Super Kings and the bowlers would be keen to make quick amends ahead of their important tie. Just like the Sunrisers, even the Titans had come up with brilliant batting display against the Chennai Super Kings before going down by four wickets in their opening game. A couple of dropped catches at crucial junctures affected their defence as Chennai won in Ranchi. Titans, however, managed to eke out a narrow four-run win over Brisbane Heat. Having made a huge impression in the first game, where AB de Villiers scored a hurricane 36-ball 77, while skipper Henry Davids' responsible 52 paved the way for Titans' challenging 185 for five, in the second game the batsmen failed to build upon their starts, getting all out for 123. But the bowlers came to the team's rescue as they restricted Brisbane Heat to 119. Besides, the experienced campaigners like Morne Morkel and Roelof van der Merwe, even Row Richards and Marchant de Lange have proved their potential in the bowling department. Come tomorrow both the Titans' batsmen and bowlers will be hoping to put up a great team work against an equally formidable batting and bowling line-up. Teams (from): Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Anand Rajan, Ashish Reddy, Jean-Paul Duminy, Amit Mishra, Parthiv Patel, Thisara Perera , Biplab Samantray, Darren Sammy, Ishant Sharma, Karan Sharma, Dale Steyn, Hanuma Vihari, Cameron White. Titans: Henry Davids (capt), Farhaan Behardien, Marchant de Lange, AB de Villiers, Cornelius de Villiers, Heino Kuhn, Eden Links, Ethy Mbhalati, Morne Morkel, Mangaliso Mosehle, Rowan Richards, Jacques Rudolph, Graeme van Buuren, Roelof van der Merwe, David Wiese.