Defending Champions Chennai Super Kings welcome the unbeaten Kolkata Knight Riders to the MA Chidambaram Stadium on the 7th of April in their highly-charged encounter.
Holders CSK had a flying start to their title defence with two wins at home to open the tournament against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans, before suffering two defeats on the road against Delhi Capitals at Vizag and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad.
The hosts will look to snip talks of a slide in front of their adoring fans in Madras against KKR, who seem to be on song this season with the batting unit firing on all fronts. The two-time IPL winners have managed to score more than 650 runs in their three previous against SRH, RCB and DC, which they went on to win.
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The opening pair of Phil Salt and Sunil Naraine seem like a force to be reckoned with at the top of the order, taking the bowlers to the cleaners early in the innings. Windies all-rounder Naraine looks to have found a new gear in power hitting since the return of former skipper Gautam Gambhir to the side as a mentor.
Salt produced a half-century against SRH before Andre Russell produced a maelstrom innings to ensure the side started the event on a winning note. Venkatesh Iyer brought up a fine fifty to compliment Narine’s attacking 47-run knock against RCB before his memorable 39-ball 89-run knock to take KKR over the line against DC.
New boy Angkrish Raghuvanshi announced himself with a fifty against DC and Kolkata look to have a promising talent in their ranks in the form of the teenager.
Their bowling attack of Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora seems to be posing credible challenges to the batters and will look to continue their touch against the holders.
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CSK’s opening pair of Rachin Ravindra and new skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad played notable innings at Chepauk before ordinary outings against DC and SRH on the road. However, a return to the Den is expected to get the duo back to their potential best, fuelled by their passionate fans.
The middle order of Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell and Shivam Dube looks solid as the central structure of the batting lineup has contributed to the scoreboard whenever called upon, typical of the five-time winners.
Former captain MS Dhoni’s quickfire cameo of 37 off 16 deliveries picked the sting off the DC defeat and the World Cup winner has demonstrated he can be as devastating as he was during his heyday at the business end of the game with his swashbuckling finishing.
Chennai’s bowling unit were taken for runs against SRH in the initial overs, but the spinners managed to put up a fight as they pushed the chase of 165 runs to the final over before conceding the game.
The availability of Sri Lankan seamer Matheesha Pathirana will hinge on the word of the team physios, who think that the pacer is coming along well in his recovery from the niggle he had sustained, but expressed they would practice caution in bringing the quick into the playing side.
Mustafizur Rahman, who starred in the curtain raiser with a four-wicket haul, has travelled back to Bangladesh to address some formalities about his visa for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA, but the CSK team management opined that certain unpredictability is well within the nature of the money-rich tournament and the side will work together to come up with contingency plans to address such circumstances.
The enticing fixture will get underway at 7:30 PM IST in Chennai on Monday as KKR set out to extend their winning run in the event while home side Chennai will target a return to winning ways in familiar territory.
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