IPL 2022 SRH vs KKR 2022

Key match stats SRH vs KKR

Pitch Stats – Brabourne Stadium

Average first innings score: 185
Average first innings winning score: 195
Average powerplay score: 52
All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 50% / 50%

Team form SRH vs KKR
SRH – LLWW
KKR – WLWWL
Recent meetings: KKR won by 6 wickets, KKR won by 10 runs

SRH vs KKR Preview

It's been a great turnaround for Sunrisers after a miserable start to IPL 2022 with back to back wins against Gujarat Titans and CSK. Their success has revolved primarily around the accuracy of their bowling and the solidity of their top order.

Conditions at the DY Patil stadium where SRH played their last 3 games undoubtedly helped with Washington Sundar being particularly effective in the powerplay as his stats for IPL 2022 below show. Unfortunately, Washington has since torn the webbing on the fingers of his bowling hand and is unlikely to play here today.

Washington Sundar IPL 2022 powerplay bowling stats

As SRH move over to the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai then they may need to revisit their powerplay bowling options anyway. Certainly the pitches here have been the most batsmen friendly of any of the 4 venues used with the average first innings score for IPL 2022 games currently at 194.2. Finger spin meanwhile has gone at 11 an over in the powerplay without taking a wicket.

In general it will be interesting to see how SRH adapt their game to these conditions. As a batting unit, they are yet to score over 170 in IPL 2022 and when they have been asked to chase above par scores so far this season, they've lost. You sense they will need to score bigger runs at the Brabourne and their middle and lower order who have generally been unused of late will need to contribute to that.

As for KKR, they too are struggling for runs and have relied on a couple of magnificent cameos from the likes of Dre Russell and Pat Cummins plus a well balanced bowling attack to get them their 3 wins so far this season.

That being said they were absolutely buried by Delhi Capitals at the weekend in a match that also took place at the Brabourne Stadium. The green tinges we saw on the pitches during the first couple of weeks of the IPL have begun to fade and with it the impact of KKR's swing bowlers. They'll be hoping for better returns from Umesh Yadav and Pat Cummins here today.

However, it's the lack of runs at the top of the order that is really costing KKR at the moment. As the graph below shows, their powerplay isn't firing and in fact only Lucknow and Chennai have lost more wickets during the powerplay (both sides averaging 2 wicket lost per powerplay) than KKR (average 1.8 wickets lost during the powerplay).

IPL 2022 run rate during the powerplay

On a pitch that is likely to favour batsmen, which ever side can get off to a flying start may well go a long way to determining the winners of the match.

SRH vs KKR head to head

KKR vs SRH bowling

It might seem a bit of an obvious statement but getting Kane Williamson out early is absolutely key for KKR. When the skipper has been able to anchor his side's innings then they've won with relative ease, when he gets out early this SRH team looks a bit vulnerable.

The bad news for KKR's bowlers is that getting Williamson out isn't something they've had much success with in previous T20 matches. In fact, as the stats below show, only Umesh Yadav has dismissed him in previous head to head encounters.

Kane Williamson combined T20 head to head vs current KKR squad

The good news for SRH is that Rahul Tripathi who was forced to retire hurt in their win against GT looks likely to be available. With SRH generally favouring solid starts, Tripathi's busy nature generally helps to up the scoring rate.

In any game against KKR this season, the head to head of the middle order vs the dual spin attack of Narine and Chakravarty will be key and in that regard, Tripathi's record against Narine is very favourable.

Batsman	Runs	Strike Rate
KL Rahul	131	181.9
HH Pandya	49	163.3
RA Tripathi	53	160.6
DA Warner	197	157.6

Top career strike rates vs Sunil Narine of players in IPL 2022 (min. 30 balls faced)

If SRH's middle order are able to put pressure on the KKR spinners then they'll have a great chance of scoring big runs at the back end of the innings. Collectively, KKR's 3 primary seam options at the death in Yadav, Russell and Cummins are leaking runs with ease. Whether SRH have the firepower to really do the damage in that stage of the game remains to be seen.

Combined death overs bowling stats for Russell, Yadav and Cummins in IPL 2022

SRH bowling vs KKR batting

As noted above, KKR's top order has failed to fire so far. Rahane made a score of 44 in the opening game and Venkatesh Iyer hit a scratchy half-century against Mumbai Indians but otherwise it's been slim pickings for the Knight Riders.

In fact, the only one of their top 5 to show any sort of consistency is Shreyas Iyer who is averaging 31 at a S/R of 148 so far in IPL 2022. SRH will be keen to get him in early again so that Bhuvi has the chance to add to an already impressive head to head against the KKR skipper.

Bhuvi vs Shreyas Iyer T20 head to head

With Washington Sundar unavailable SRH will surely need to turn to the wrist spin of Shreyas Gopal. In fact, wrist spin at the Brabourne Stadium has been a far more effective weapon than finger spin to date in IPL 2022 so introducing a leggie would surely have to come into the Sunrisers' planning for this match anyway!

Bowling type	Wickets	Strike Rate	Economy
Finger Spin	4	39.0	9.3
Wrist Spin	21	10.7	7.6

Spin stats at the Brabourne Stadium IPL 2022

At the death, we'll see how the likes of Natarajan and Bhuvi cope with the power of Russell, Narine and Cummins. So far, SRH have been very good at the back end of the innings particularly in their wins against CSK and GT where the effectively limited 2 sides with plenty of striking power.

Between them the 2 aforementioned seamers have taken 9 wickets during the death overs at an economy of 9.7 an over. If they can continue that form today and with the frailty of KKR's top order then there is no reason to think that SRH can't record a third win on the trot.

All stats used in this blog are from my own database. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images which are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free