Ahead of SRH-CSK clash, host body claims dues cleared; power dept denies

Ruturaj Gaikwad (Pic: AFP)

The South derby in the ongoing IPL 2024 season between the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) came under a cloud of uncertainty on Friday, as the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) on Friday informed that electricity supply to the stadium had been restored to the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, which is to host the match, while the power department denied the claim.

Earlier, the electricity department cut power supply to the arena, also known as the Uppal Stadium, over dues or unpaid tariff amounting to over Rs 3 crore.

Through an official release on Friday, the president's office of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) claimed there was no threat to the South derby as the IPL 2024 clash will go ahead as scheduled. However, an officer in the electricity department said the dues haven't been cleared, adding that if the payment wasn't made by evening on Friday, power supply will be snapped.

"The HCA has run up dues and we issued them a notice earlier over unpaid tariff. We gave them 24 hours to reply to our notice and clear the dues. If the bill isn't cleared by this evening, electricity supply to the stadium will be disconnected," the official said.

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After losing to Delhi Capitals (DC) by 20 runs in their previous clash in the ongoing IPL 2024 season, defending champions CSK currently sit third on the points table with 4 points after two wins and one loss, with the net run rate at +0.976.

The Sunrisers will also go into this clash on the back of a 7-wicket loss to last year's losing finalists, Gujarat Titans (GT). They are currently at the seventh place on the IPL standings, with just two points. Their first and only win of the ongoing IPL season came against five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. They prevailed over the visitors in a run feast, winning by 31 runs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Heinrich Klaasen (Wk), Pat Cummins (C), Mayank Agarwal, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat, Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Nitish Reddy, Upendra Yadav, Rahul Tripathi, T Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh.

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), MS Dhoni (Wk), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Sameer Rizvi, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, Shardul Thakur, Shaik Rasheed, Moeen Ali, Mitchell Santner, Devon Conway, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Prashant Solanki, Mukesh Choudhary, Simarjeet Singh, RS Hangargekar, Maheesh Theekshana, Nishant Sindhu, Aravelly Avanish.