After a remarkable win of 80 runs, Chennai Super Kings will ride to Kings XI Punjab backyard tomorrow at IS Bindra stadium. MS Dhoni-led CSK will be looking forward to cementing their pole position in the points table. Meanwhile, KXIP will need to win with a huge difference in order to push their luck in the tournament. Not to forget that CSK will be reverting their push will equal force.
After the Thalivans took out Delhi Capitals, they regained their top position on the points table. However, it is still important for them to win the last league match tomorrow. Because if Mumbai Indians win their last match against KKR, then CSK could be forced down to the third position (provided they lose by a big margin).
A battle must for either team to win
Whereas for KXIP, they have stumbled down to the seventh position after they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday. They, now, will have to not only win their last match, but they’ll also have to win with a huge difference. And then hope for the other two- Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders to lose their respective matches. Though it could have been a bit easy, had they won the previous matches?
With Thala being in good form, as of late, and their spin trio bewitching opponents, CSK has fair chances to kick KXIP out of the league. Their batting order consists of IPL’s best batsmen such as Suresh Raina and Dhoni, including Ravindra Jadeja who did his bit in the last game. While their bowling attack has spinners like Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh and Jadeja.
On the other hand, KXIP were wounded badly by KKR as they lost to them by seven wickets. Their mainstay players and openers, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul failed to lift their bats in the previous match which have shaken their hopes and confidence in the game.
Till now, CSK has won nine out of thirteen matches whereas KXIP is dangling off the edge with just five wins in thirteen games.
Squads:
Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, Moises Henriques, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Mayank Agarwal, Mandeep Singh, David Miller, Mohammed Shami, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul (wk), Murugan Ashwin, Ankit Rajpoot, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Hardus Viljoen, Andrew Tye, Sam Curran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Agnivesh Ayachi, Darshan Nalkande, Arshdeep Singh, Simran Singh, Harpreet Brar
Chennai Super Kings: Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Deepak Chahar, Mohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dhruv Shorey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Chaitanya Bishnoi, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif