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Sunrisers Hyderabad would be banking on their famed foreign recruits to come good when they take on the formidable Chennai Super Kings in their opening match of the eighth edition of Indian Premier League, in Chennai, on Saturday.
The visitors will have to put up an inspiring effort to down Chennai, who kick started their campaign with a thrilling one-run win over Delhi Daredevils on Thursday.
Led by aggressive Australian opener David Warner, Sunrisers would be relying mostly on foreigners to deliver the goods, given the scarcity of local stars in their ranks.
Shikhar Dhawan is the lone Indian batting star in the line-up and a lot would be expected of him after his impressive run in the ICC World Cup last month.
With an array of foreigners it will be interesting to see which four the Sunrisers pick in their playing eleven. Besides captain, South African speedster Dale Steyn and in-form New Zealand pacer Trent Boult are most likely to get a go, who will have a tough task bowling against the rampaging Brendon McCullum, who would be looking to make up for his failure against Delhi.
The pitch offered enough assistance to the spinners during the Chennai vs Delhi match and that is something both captains will keep in mind while selecting the playing eleven.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai did well to hold their nerves in a pressure situation and pull off another close game but they would be hoping to put up a much better batting show than what they managed against Delhi. Not many teams in the competition would mind chasing 151 at Chepauk but Delhi threw away a golden opportunity.
The Chennai bowling would be high on confidence with old horse Ashish Nehra bagging the man of the match award against Delhi and Ravichandran Ashwin troubling the batsmen with his genuine off-spinners.
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Faf Du Plessis, Matt Henry, Samuel Badree, Michael Hussey, Kyle Abbott, Mohit Sharma, Pawan Negi, Ashish Nehra, Baba Aparajith, Ishwar Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Ronit More, Rahul Sharma, Ankush Bains, Irfan Pathan, Pratyush Singh, Eklavya Dwivedi, Andrew Tye.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Naman Ojha, Kane Williamson, Dale Steyn, Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Trent Boult, Parveez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Chama Milind, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Praveen Kumar, Hanuma Vihari, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Siddarth Kaul.
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