Nerves will play a big role as Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad look to outdo each other and regain the coveted IPL crown when they square off in what promises to be a humdinger of a summit clash.
Chennai Super Kings, who are gunning for their third IPL crown, take on 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad five days after their first play-off game at the same venue.
Faf du Plessis helped CSK edge SRH in a low-scoring thriller after the latter had the match in control. The two-wicket win helped Dhoni’s men get to a record seventh final in the IPL. Sunrisers, meanwhile, suffered their third straight defeat against CSK.
Sunrisers had to knock out two-time former champions Kolkata Knight Riders by 14 runs in Qualifier 2 on Friday night.
Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who helped Sunrisers qualify for the final with an all-round performance, had troubled the Super Kings with his spell of two for 11 burst in the first qualifier.
The talented leggie, who has been described as the world’s best T20 spinner by Sachin Tendulkar, again looms as a big hurdle for the Super Kings’ strong batting line-up. He will be backed up by medium pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddharth Kaul.
Super Kings will also be wary about the big-hitting Carlos Brathwaite. The big West Indian shone with the ball at the death against KKR after his blistering innings of 43 not out in the first Qualifier.
Sunrisers will, however, need captain Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan to help them give a good start. Their middle and lower order have contributed scantily.
Super Kings had depended a lot on their top order – Shane Watson, Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu – in the league stage of the tournament, apart from Dhoni’s finishing flourishes.
With du Plessis and Bravo too in the mix, the CSK batting looks formidable.
Harbhajan, strangely, was not given a single over when the two teams met in the first play-off game and needs just one wicket to complete 50 IPL wickets at this ground.
Squads
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayadu, Deepak Chahar, K M Asif, Kanish Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshtiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, David Willy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Ricky Bhui, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Tanmay Agarwal, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi and Chris Jordan.
Head to head
Overall: Matches – 9, Chennai Super Kings won – 7, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 2
In 2018: Matches – 3, Chennai Super Kings won – 3, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 0.
Key stats
- MS Dhoni will be playing his 8th IPL final; he led CSK in 6 previous finals and was part of the Rising Pune Supergiant team that finished runner-up in 2017. He needs 7 more runs to make this IPL 2018 his most successful IPL season ever; he has so far scored 455 runs in 15 innings this season.
- CSK have a 6-6 win-loss record in IPL matches at the Wankhede Stadium. The corresponding number for SRH is 1-4.
- The team batting first has won 7 of the previous 10 IPL Finals.
With inputs from PTI and iplt20.com
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