Can Pat hit back?

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins (left) and teammates celebrate a Mumbai Indians wicket at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. Pic/AFP; (right) Lucknow Super Giants’s captain KL Rahul. Pic/AFP

The battle for the Playoffs is hotting up. Four teams, who are better placed than the bottom four are in the fray for the third and fourth spots as the league phase enters the final stretch. Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals are perched at the top.

Wednesday's match between hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is crucial as the winner will get one step closer to the Playoffs.

Run-rate vital

Both teams have 12 points each from 11 matches with six wins and five losses. Both will also keep an eye on the run-rate as it will be vital in the end as Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals are the other two potential contenders in the race.

Sunrisers have had a roller-coaster ride this season. Before losing to Mumbai Indians by a big margin they barely managed to squeak past RR by one run in their last home match.

This season, SRH have a 3-2 record at home. As Cummins said after the toss in Mumbai that they need to win at least two matches for a Playoffs place. Apart from this match, SRH have to play two more matches, both at home. They host Gujarat Titans (May 16) before winding up the league phase with a match against Punjab Kings (May 19). On the other hand, LSG face DC in Delhi (May 14) and MI in Mumbai (May 17).

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The trio of Travis Head, Abhisekh Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen, who were devastating with their big-hitting skills, have not produced the same red-hot form consistently that helped SRH rattle up big scores.

They have been culled and SRH have choked. In a few matches, young Nitish Reddy stood up to the challenge and in the last match, Cummins took SRH to 173 with a late cameo.

But otherwise, it has been a disappointing show in the second half of the season with even former Indian opener Mayank Agarwal failing in his comeback match in Mumbai. The SRH batters will be hoping to find their mojo in their last three matches at home.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the hero of SRH's thrilling win over RR. He has found his rhythm and that is good news for SRH. H Natarajan has been good with his yorkers while Cummins has come up with useful spells.

LSG skipper KL Rahul and Marcus Stoinis have been top performers with the willow, but the former has come in for some criticism for his strike-rate. The bowlers have been a big disappointment.

‘Unseasonal rain expected'

SRH preferred to skip Wednesday's net session, but LSG, who were scheduled to have a practice session too opted out because of rain. LSG assistant coach Sridharan Sriram said: "Unseasonal rain and thunderstorms are expected. Hopefully, we will have a full game."