The five-time champions Chennai Super Kings suffered a surprise loss against Delhi Capitals in their last match on Sunday, their first defeat of the season. A second consecutive defeat would be a serious blow to their hopes of a successful title defence.
CSK will need to regather quickly as they face a dangerous and unpredictable hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 18 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium today, Friday. Chennai’s new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad though had dismissed the loss to DC as an “expected odd dip in a long tournament”.
Hosts SRH, too, are coming from a seven-wicket loss against the Gujarat Titans after two breathtaking performances had yielded a loss and a defeat each. The Hyderabad-based combine won the hearts of their fans with a fighting display despite a four-run defeat in the opener against Kolkata Knight Riders but the loss in Ahmedabad on Sunday last exposed many flaws.
Run feast in last match at Hyderabad
The 2016 champions raised their bar to a whole new level against five-time champions Mumbai Indians to post 277/3 - the highest innings total in the history of the IPL. In that run feast the match also witnessed records for IPL’s highest second innings score of 246/5 and the most runs in a game – 523.
But SRH's flaws were exposed by the Titans in their third match of the campaign. It was an overall failure for the Heinrich Klaasen-led team when neither batting, nor bowling had worked.
CSK likely to miss Mustafizur Rahman?
CSK in all probability will be without the services of Mustafizur Rahman, who is holding the Purple Cap of tournament’s most successful bowler. He has flown back to Bangladesh to complete his visa formalities for the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.
Mustafizur is expected to join the team in Hyderabad later in the afternoon. But CSK might not field him in the match shortly after his arrival. His absence would weaken the CSK bowling attack against the rampant batting order of the Sunrisers.
It will be hard for the Yellow Army to find an able replacement for the ace paceman, the leading wicket-taker with seven wickets from three matches. Mustafizur's experience and variations are a massive weapon for the Super Kings with the new ball.
CSK eye swift revival
Delhi bowlers exposed the flaws in CSK's batting with the opening pair of Rachin Ravindra and Ruturaj Gaikwad failing to make a significant impact. It was a collective failure for their batting, when only Ajinkya Rahane could make a significant 45 runs before MS Dhoni gave a glimpse of his exceptional abilities.
Following Dhoni's 16-ball 37* at No.8 in his first display with the bat this season, it will be in the better interest of the team to have him bat above the order. That will be an interesting move, considering Shivam Dube and Sammer Rizvi at No. 5 and 6 respectively are two big hitters of the ball. Chunks in SRH armour
SRH would like to draw a leaf out of the emphatic win in their last outing at Uppal. However, they too have their share of concerns. Opener Mayank Agarwal has managed just 59 runs from three matches so far.
In bowling, skipper Pat Cummins, who has four wickets for 95 runs from three matches at an impressive economy of 7.91, has failed to get the desired support.
Jaydev Unadkat (economy 11.16), Mayank Markande (economy 11.42) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar,wicketless in three games, have been expensive, inconsistent and ineffective. Considering that over 500 runs were scored in the last match in Hyderabad, SRH will be under pressure to get their bowling act together, even if they will be hosting the Super Kings on a different wicket.
SRH vs CSK Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Jaydev Unadkat, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Pat Cummins (c), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sanvir Singh, Glenn Phillips, Nitish Reddy, Marco Jansen, Abhishek Sharma, Upendra Yadav, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Abdul Samad, Akash Maharaj Singh, Wanindu Hasaranga, Umran Malik.
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Aravelly Avanish, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, RS Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nishant Sindhu, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Mustafizur Rahman, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Shardul Thakur, Maheesh Theekshana, Sameer Rizvi.
Match starts at 7:30 PM IST.
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