Eagles look to overpower Lions as a final berth beckons

The Lions, led by Suresh Raina, have been impressive in their first ever IPL appearance, finishing on top of the table en-route to the play-offs. 

They had one foot in the summit clash when they had Royal Challengers Bangalore on the mat but AB de Villiers pulled the rug from under their feet with his sensational batting. 

But the job is not going to be easy for the Lions since they are up against a team, which has beaten them twice in the league stage. Both the times, they had failed to defend their totals against the Sunrisers. 

The Sunrisers have lost a bit of an edge in the absence of impactful Ashish Nehra, who is now recuperating from a knee surgery, but at the same time Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman have actually managed to bowl Sunrisers to a position of strength. 

In the Eliminator too, skipper David Warner used Bhuvneshwar and Mustafizur to create a lot of pressure on KKR batsmen and eventually they cracked. 

The Lions have the wherewithal and batsmen to fight the Sunrisers pacers and they would hope that Brendon McCullum rises to occasion tomorrow. The Kiwi batsman need to fire at the top and put a tag on his wicket. Dwayne Smith has been their go-to man and he is one batsman the Sunrisers need to get early on. 

For the Sunrisers, Yuvraj getting back to his old touch is certainly good news. The top-5, which also includes in-form Shikhar Dhawan, make the core of their batting and the Lions will have to ensure they do not bat for long. 

Gujarat vs Hyderabad from 8 pm onwards on Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN, HD