Designing for the sun in New Chandigarh

Before French architect Le Corbusier planned 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-soliel' technique, French for 'sun breaker'.

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, Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH 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.

The Powerplay (and beyond)

The best teams in overs 1 to 6 are nearly neck-and-neck on run-rate and dot-ball percentage. 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 restrictions lift. 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. 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. The Kishan-Klaasen collective has overshadowed the Jurel-Parag pairing.

SRH & RR's No.3 & 4 this season:

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 New Chandigarh's post-Powerplay dip, and RR's batting could be pressed from both sides.

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. 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 — though his fitness is uncertain.

The evening before the game, RR's batting core were seen sharpening their spin game. Sooryavanshi followed Jaiswal in a tweaker-heavy session, sending missiles down the ground. Notably, in his 37-ball 103 against SRH, Sooryavanshi only faced six balls of spin, looting 21 runs. Meanwhile, Jurel has been much better against spin versus pace (161.45 vs 129.82).

Despite the venue's lopsided record, SRH would rely on their successful seam group. To counter, RR have a standout performer in Archer, enjoying his best IPL season. Between overs 7 and 15, Archer's economy and average lie at 7.00 and 18.66 this season. He's dismissed Head thrice even as the batter has struck at 160.6 against him.

Comparing post-Powerplay bowling numbers, RR have a significantly worse economy rate (9.58 v 8.96) but a marginally better strike-rate (17.2 vs 17.7).

If they aren't able to restrict SRH in the Powerplay, their best chance is to attack with wickets in the second half. Across SRH's five losses, three came via top-order implosions: 29/3 vs RCB, 26/4 vs LSG, 32/4 vs GT. Two others came by restriction: against PBKS, they cracked 105 in six overs but ended with 219; against KKR, they went from 105/1 in the ninth over to 165 all out.

It's a tall task for RR, the fourth team in the paddock, up against an SRH side with most bases covered. A knockout game has little breathing room, but 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.