In the 37th match of the IPL 2020, MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are facing Steven Smith-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium (Abu Dhabi). It is their second meeting in this IPL season.
While they are the last two positioned teams in the IPL 2020 points table with 6 points each, both teams are playing their 10th match of this season. In the IPL 2020 points table, Chennai Super Kings are in the 7th position and Rajasthan Royals are in the 8th or last position.
Their first meeting in this IPL season was during the 4th match of the IPL 2020 (at Sharjah on 22nd September 2020) from where they started their campaign in this season. Rajasthan Royals started their IPL 2020 journey by winning that high-scoring match by 16 runs.
IPL 2020, Match 37: Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals (CSK vs RR) – Toss Report
Playing his 200th IPL match, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first. CSK made two changes in the playing XI as Josh Hazlewood and Piyush Chawla replaced Dwayne Bravo and Karn Sharma.
Dhoni said, “We will bat first. It is a used wicket and chances are it may slow down as the game progresses. He won’t be available for the next few games. Injuries are not only our concern but the other franchises as well, that’s because the players have not played for a long time. You spoke about it and that’s how I got to know. It’s just a number. I have been fortunate to have played so many games. We have couple of changes – Hazlewood and Chawla in.”
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals captain Steven Smith confirmed that they have made only one alteration in the playing XI as Ankit Rajpoot replaced Jaydev Unadkat.
Smith said, “He (Stokes) has put up okay fortunately, good to go tonight. The equation is pretty simple for us we need to keep winning, hopefully we can start tonight. We have to bowl first, restrict them and chase it down. We will see how we go (about his batting position). I found a bit of rhythm the other day which was nice and hopefully can carry on. We have got one change – Rajpoot comes in for Unadkat.”
IPL 2020, Match 37: Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals (CSK vs RR) – Playing XIs
Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (C/wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazlewood
Rajasthan Royals (RR): Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson (wk), Steven Smith (C), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi