Five straight victories. That's the chasm between these two sides going into Saturday's clash in Jaipur. Sunrisers Hyderabad have owned Rajasthan Royals lately, and with Pat Cummins returning to captain the side, they're even harder to pick against.
Royals: middle-order rot threatens homecoming
RR have 10 points from 7 games, sitting third, but their batting has serious holes. Skipper Riyan Parag has just 81 runs at 13.50 and a strike rate of 117.39, admitting he's in a tough phase. The middle order after Jaiswal, Sooryavanshi and Jurel has been brittle — scores of 159, 155 and 159 in their last three outings prove it.
Their strength is the new-ball attack. Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger and Ravindra Jadeja have bagged 18 Powerplay wickets in seven games — the best in the tournament. But death bowling is shaky: Sandeep Sharma leaks 14.09 runs per over at the death.
SRH: Cummins returns to a roll
SRH are on a three-match winning streak that started with a 57-run demolition of RR on April 13. Heinrich Klaasen (320 runs, second on the Orange Cap list) and Abhishek Sharma (323 runs at a surreal strike rate of 215.33) are in red-hot form. Pat Cummins is set to take back the captaincy from Ishan Kishan, returning from a back injury that kept him out since December.
Their bowling arsenal has depth. Eshan Malinga has 12 wickets and excels at the death with yorkers and variations. Sakib Hussain has conceded no sixes across 12 overs this season. In the previous meeting, debutants Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain each took four-wicket hauls.
Breakdown: pace, bounce and the batting-first habit
Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur has bigger square boundaries and offers little bounce — ideal for skiddy bowlers like Archer and Burger. Yet last season the average first-innings score here was 198, one of the highest in IPL 2025, and chasing sides won 4 of 7 matches. The overall venue record shows chasing wins 52.9% of the time.
SRH have batted first in all seven games this season, and they have a 1-2 record away from home. That pattern is a worry if they lose the toss and are forced to chase — their overall chasing win rate is just 39.58%. But with Cummins back, that narrative could shift.
Key matchup: Ravi Bishnoi has dismissed Ishan Kishan four times in the IPL for just 48 runs off 46 balls. But Klaasen and Abhishek strike at 210 and 462.5 respectively against Bishnoi, so the leggie is a double-edged sword.
RR's heavy reliance on their top three makes them vulnerable if SRH's new-ball duo of Cummins and Malinga strike early. The Royals have scored more than 192.5 runs only once in their last five innings — and that was batting first.
With SRH's red-hot form and RR's middle-order struggles, the visitors hold a clear edge. The value lies in the batting total of the hosts.
Match prediction: Team total: RR under 192.5 (runs), odds 1.748
