CSK vs KKR IPL 2024 Toss and Pitch report: Good batting surface may finally start to help spinners

CSK hosts KKR at home

Chennai Super Kings will host Kolkata Knight Riders at home on Monday evening. The night game is scheduled to start at 7 30 PM. Kolkata Knight Riders are on a roll with three consecutive wins while the Chennai Super Kings campaign has suffered blows in the last two matches. The reigning champions have won their first two matches but lost the last two encounters of this season.

The Toss

The turf at the MA Chidambaram stadium usually favours bowlers, spinners in particular. However as only two games have been played at this venue this season so far, it is still fresh and is assisting both the batters and pace bowlers. Mustafizur Rehman blew away Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first match here with his five-wickets haul. In the two games played here so far only two wickets have gone to spinners while the pacers have taken 16 scalps. This figure is likely to turn towards the spinners once the season advances.

Both KKR and CSK have good spin attack. Kolkata Knight Riders have spin trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma. Chennai will rely on trusted war-horse Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Theeksana if he makes the eleven.

KKR have got the mojo back this season with their Caribbean recruits Sunil Narine and Andre Russell showing vintage form. Narine, in particular has been effective with bot bat and ball. These are the two dangerous players that CSK would be wary of the most as they can test the dimensions of the Chepauk. Another batter who would be raring to go is Rinku Singh, having a subdued season so far.

CSK would also be wary of the slippery pace of Harshit Rana and Mitchell Starc. Last year, MI pacer Akash Madhwal had ripped through their batting here taking 5 wickets for 5 runs.

The Pitch

Toss is going to be important here as it becomes increasingly difficult to score her as the game progresses.

Of the 78 IPL matches played here so far, 47 (almost 60 percent) have been won by team batting first while only 31 (almost 40 percent) times the chasing team has won the match. So, the winning mantra here is – win the toss and bat first!