IPL 2018, Qualifier 1: 5 reasons why Chennai Super Kings can beat Sunrisers Hyderabad

#2 SRH's middle order woes

Yusuf Pathan

Sunrisers have been over-dependent on Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan and no other SRH batsman has scored more than 300 runs.

Manish Pandey is the only other batsman in the SRH lineup who scored more than 200 runs, but even his strike rate of 120.00 is not great in the tournament of such high standards.

Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan who are the mainstays in SRH's middle order average only 27.60, 26.85, and 22.00 respectively. They have also failed to score at a faster rate, as the three batsmen combined, have a strike rate of only 123.79.

The middle and lower order batsmen have failed to capitalise the good starts provided by Williamson on most occasions.

The same was on display in their last league game against Kolkata Knight Riders. Sunrisers were cruising through at one stage, as they were at 127/1.

But, just as they lost the wicket of Williamson in the thirteenth over, they could manage only 43 runs in the last seven overs in addition to losing 7 wickets in that span.

If Chennai can capitalise on this weak middle order, it will be a smooth sailing for the two-time champions.