Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) are against each other at Super Kings’ home turf
After all the amazing and thrilling matches over the week, Rajasthan Royals (RR) are all set to enter the den of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk Stadium. Chennai has always boasted about its success rate which is nearly 72% in the IPL. Playing at the home ground is certainly an advantage for Chennai but Rajasthan Royals have the resources to neutralize the home advantage.
Rajasthan Royals’ journey so far has been on and off but their last encounter against Delhi Capitals was a win. Whereas looking at the Chennai Super Kings’ journey, they started with a loss but now they are winning matches back to back. They identified their weak points and started working on them soon which also was reflected in their previous match against Mumbai Indians. Both would love to keep their winning momentum going and would give their best shot for the two points.
If we look at the last five encounters between the Royals and the Super Kings, four out of 5 matches have been won by Rajasthan Royals. It always was a close encounter. As Chepauk Stadium is known for its spinning attack, certainly the Royals have an advantage over there.
R. Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal have been doing an explicit job in the spinning department. Trent Bolt has also been showcasing his bolt attack in the powerplay. Ashwin being the homeboy at MA Chidambaram Stadium is the highest wicket-taker in that stadium in IPL history. Chepauk has a history as a decent batting pitch too, it is hard and the dry surface tends to break down with the game. It would be a spin-attack contest between the two teams.
The opening pair of Rajasthan Royals has worked all the fireworks and jolted mighty powerplay totals. They set up the base for the middle over batters. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on the other hand have been consistently showing improvement in their matches, be it their batting performance or bowling.
Super Kings (CSK) with Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner at their best are roaring the loudest. After Dhoni’s previous statement about their extras and no balls in their bowling performance, they have made a huge improvement and gave only 8 extras in their previous match. Both teams will be looking forward to their 3rd win, although every time these teams have clashed against each other it has been an iconic match.
After Deepak Chahar’s hamstring injury, he will be missing a major part of IPL in recovery and Ben Stokes who is suffering from a toe injury has been out, Jadeja in a pre-match press conference said that it will take around 4 to 5 days for Ben to be fit. After the last match’s blasting performance of 61 runs by 27 balls by Ajinkya Rahane, he will be hard to drop. The Royals have no major injury concerns.
Currently, the Royals stand in second position with 4 points at the table and Chennai Super Kings stand in fifth position with 4 points the only difference is in the net run rate.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Probable Playing 11-
Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni © (wk), Mitchell Santner, Maheesh Teekshana, Tushar Deshpande
Rajasthan Royals (RR) Probable Playing 11-
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson © (wk), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Jason Holder, R. Ashwin, M. Ashwin, Trent Bolt, Yuzvendra Chahal
