Before French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier planned the beautiful city of Chandigarh, he had to break away from his earlier works on cold climates. The first thing was to beat India's tropical sun, for which he turned to the 'brise-soleil' technique, French for 'sun breaker'. Go around, and it's a prominent presence throughout Chandigarh.
In New Chandigarh, away from Corbusier's influence, the Rajasthan Royals have their own daystar to combat. Not just the excessive heat alert - temperatures are set to cross 42 degrees - but also their opponents, named after the solar orb. Sunrisers Hyderabad make for a daunting challenge in the Eliminator. RR have already been beaten twice by them this year and are winless against them since 2022.
What should RR do? The first punch, rather simplistically, lies in having a better Powerplay.
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The best teams in overs 1 to 6, nearly neck-and-neck on run-rate and dot-ball percentage. This means an underwhelming Powerplay could open a stark gap, especially in New Chandigarh.
For a ground with an outfield bigger than most others this IPL, New Chandigarh sees a sizeable drop in run-rate as the restrictions get lifted. Sunrisers themselves suffered the extreme version of it at this venue early in the season, losing despite smashing 105 in the Powerplay.
Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head have struck at 206.22 together this year, compared to 159.43 by the Yashasvi Jaiswal-Vaibhav Sooryavanshi pair. But crucially, SRH's No.3 and 4 have collectively fared the best this season (1092 runs at 42, strike-rate of 165.2). RR are lower on all three counts: volume of runs, average and strike-rate. The Kishan-Klaasen collective has overshadowed the Jurel-Parag pairing on this front.
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The other advantage for SRH is how their bowlers have aced the middle overs. In the post-Powerplay phase, led by Eshan Malinga, Sakib Hussain and Pat Cummins, SRH have the best economy (8.96) among all teams. Compound that with the existing challenges of New Chandigarh's post-Powerplay dip, and RR's batting could be pressed from both sides.
The other factor is the pace versus spin mismatch at the venue. In four games, the economy rate against pace is 11.06, compared to 9.29 against spin, with spin having a better strike-rate and much lower boundary percentage as well. Notably, against spin, Jaiswal has been quite poor (striking at 118.36). On the flipside, all of Abhishek, Kishan and Klaasen have sub-130 strike-rates against Jadeja. But we don't know if Jadeja is fit to play. On Tuesday, he casually bowled with a couple of steps, cap on, and took gentle throwdowns with one pad on. Among the three uncapped spinners in both teams, Yash Raj Punja is the only one with a sub-nine economy rate and a better average than Harsh Dubey and Shivang Kumar.
The evening before the game, RR's batting core were seen sharpening their spin game.
Sooryavanshi followed Jaiswal in a tweaker-heavy batting session, with Ferreira sandwiched in between. Scratchy at first, Sooryavanshi fell into his usual rhythm of lofting deliveries with ease, sending missiles down the ground and onto the tin roof right below the media box. The clattering sound became a regular feature, but Sooryavanshi also inside-edged a few trying to overhit. Bishnoi was also able to briefly tie him down with yorker-length balls that he only dug out. At one point, he mistimed one of Ferreira's offies, and the South African celebrated in jest. Notably, in his 37-ball 103 against SRH, Sooryavanshi only faced six balls of spin, looting 21 runs off Shivang.
Meanwhile, to offset Jaiswal's spin deficiency this year, Jurel has been much better against spin versus pace (161.45 vs 129.82).
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Despite the venue's lopsided record, SRH would much rather rely on their successful seam group. To counter, RR have a standout performer in Archer, enjoying his best IPL season so far. He could be key to breaking SRH's No.3-4 advantage. Between overs 7 and 15, Archer's economy and average lie at 7.00 and 18.66 this season. He's also dismissed Head thrice even as the batter has struck at 160.6 against him. Brijesh Sharma, with his change-ups, has been a valuable second hand to Archer.
Comparing with SRH's post-Powerplay bowling numbers, RR have a significantly worse economy rate (9.58 v 8.96) but do have a marginally better strike-rate (17.2 vs 17.7).
If they aren't able to restrict SRH in the Powerplay, or the top four from firing, their best chance is to attack with wickets in the second half. And SRH do have that pattern in their defeats.
Across their five losses, three came via top-order implosions: 29/3 vs RCB, 26/4 vs LSG, 32/4 vs GT. That's RR's best-case scenario. But two others also came by restriction: against PBKS, they cracked 105 in six overs but eventually ended with 219. And, against KKR, they went from 105/1 in the ninth over to 165 all out.
It's a tall task by all means for RR, the fourth team in the paddock, up against an SRH side with most bases tested and covered. And while a knockout game has little breathing room, it's also a fresh, one-shot chance: to beat the better-placed team, to break a winless streak, to revise a 2-0 season scoreline.
To be the sun breaker.
