Chennai Super Kings will hope to keep the in-form Andre Russell quiet when they host Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Russell has been in phenomenal touch so far this season, having scored 207 runs in four innings to single-handedly win matches for his side.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK, who beat Kings XI Punjab rather convincingly on Saturday, will however be wary of Dinesh Karthik’s KKR who are top of the table on net run-rate.
The Knight Riders are also coming off an all-round clinical win over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday night.
Spin battle
With both teams having an array of top-notch spinners, the onus would be on the batsmen to counter them, given the nature of the pitch at Chepauk.
While Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja stifled the Kings XI batsmen to set up the win, Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla didn’t allow the attacking Jos Buttler to get going on a slowish Jaipur track, thus restricting the Royals to a below par total of 139/3 in 20 overs.
That the tweakers in both teams will be keen to have a bowl at Chepauk would be an understatement. It will be fascinating to see which of the bowling units shines.
Russell threat
All eyes will be on the batting line-ups and how they go about neutralising the spin threat. How the Super Kings bowlers handle the Russell threat will be watched with keen interest.
The flamboyant Jamaican has been in awe-inspiring form with the bat and how he goes about his business at CSK’s den against Harbhajan and Co could determine the outcome. The last time these two sides met in Chennai, in what CSK’s first and only game at their home stadium in 2018, Russell smashed 11 sixes in his 36-ball 88 to help KKR post 202 batting first. CSK managed to chase that down in the last over, with Sam Billings playing the match-defining knock.
Their meeting in 2019 might not be quite high-scoring.
CSK, on their part, brought in Faf du Plessis in place of the injured Dwayne Bravo and he made an immediate impact with a quality knock [54 off 38 balls]. His contribution at the top will be crucial again.
Dhoni has been providing the thrust in the end overs in some style. The home crowd will be hoping that their ‘Captain Cool’ will once again be leading from the front.
KKR’s scoring rate of 10.06 is the best among all teams this season. On the other hand, CSK’s economy rate of 7.12 is the best among all teams this season. CSK are undefeated batting first in IPL 2019, while KKR are undefeated in three run-chases this season. When they meet on Tuesday in what has become an highly-anticipated match-up, something’s got to give.
Head to Head in IPL
Overall: Matches – 18, Chennai Super Kings– 11, Kolkata Knight Riders – 7
In Chennai: Matches – 8, Chennai Super Kings– 6, Kolkata Knight Riders – 2
Squads
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni [Captain & WK], Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Rituraj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Sharma, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan, Scott Kuggeleign.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik [Captain & WK], Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, Nikhil Naik, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Harry Gurney, KC Cariappa, Yarra Prithviraj.
[Inputs from PTI and iplt20.com]
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