Chennai Super Kings need 6 wins out of their 7 remaining matches at the moment to have a chance to be in the top four.
Winning eight games in the league stage guarantees teams a spot in the IPL playoff stages most of the time. Taking that equation into account, the Chennai Super Kings need 6 wins out of their 7 remaining games at the moment. Technically, their next match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday (October 13) is not a mandatory game. But try to explain that to the members of the CSK camp. They desperately want two points on their kitty to get that stuttering campaign back on track.
All they have now is two wins in seven games. They have been in this situation only once before this season and that was 10 years ago when they went on to write a remarkable change to win the title. While he hopes they will be inspired by that, the shape of the losses has certainly cornered them and they need a spectacular hitting performance similar to the one they had against Kings XI Punjab to instill faith. Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson stepped up that night, but they need more people to raise their hands this time.
The focus at CSK this season has been on bat intent or lack of bat to be more precise. Their losses have followed the same pattern. In every game so far CSK has been chasing and in each of those losses the top 3 or 4 have managed to spend a lot of time playing and allowing the required execution rate to rise upwards by the middle order. enters to scene. Finally, they ended up falling short. Their opponents on Tuesday, Sunrisers Hyderabad, will certainly be wary of that, as they managed to squeeze a seven-run win over them in their previous clash ten days ago.
Teams now return to the same spot and CSK hopes to hit first now for a change. SRH prefers races on the board before putting down their opponents, and conditions haven’t been favorable this year for chasing teams either. Now that the fields also show a tendency to slow down, the CSK hopes to get more out of its spinners. SRH is not expected to change much in their game plan despite losing to the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, a game in which they scored most of the boxes before losing steam at the end. Even though they have looked much better than CSK this season, a loss on Tuesday will put them in the same boat as their opponents.
They may be tempted to use Rashid Khan much more in the middle to build pressure that could force CSK back into a bubble. CSK, on the other hand, may consider promoting Sam Curran to No. 4, perhaps to counter the threat of the leg clamp and to force the pace at the same time. Whatever happens, CSK’s main goal will be to make sure the dreaded word “I” doesn’t haunt them for the sixth time this year.
When:Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings, Match 29, IPL 2020, 6:00 PM Local Time, 7:30 PM IST
Where: Dubai International Cricket Stadium
What to expect:Only twice have teams managed to win chasing at this location so far and the second instance was Sunday with SRH. The Royals managed to pull off a heist and that wouldn’t deter both teams from getting into this clash. Both would want races on the board.
Team news:
Hyderabad sunrises
Vijay Shankar came into the wing in place of Abdul Samad last game and is expected to remain in place. Priyam Garg hasn’t had much of an impact with the bat this year, but the only game in which he managed to score a fifty was against CSK in their previous clash. So SRH won’t see any reason to quit as well.
Probable XI:David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (week), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan. Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan, Khaleel Ahmed
Super Kings of Chennai
N Jagadeesan didn’t set the stage on fire, but he certainly looked more spirited than Ambati Rayudu in that partnership against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Will he be able to keep his place? If he does, it will be better for CSK to open the innings that will lead Faf du Plessis to No. 3. If Watson and du Plessis fail, CSK will have to play off their batting and send an executor at No. 4.
Probable XI:Shane Watson, N Jagadeesan, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Sam Curran, MS Dhoni c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma, Shadul Thakur
What they say:
“The other point is that we’ve chased all the games and the wickets are getting slower. It’s not easy once you lose the wickets … But I’d like to see a little more intention. Not that you can keep swinging, there is it’s a challenging bowling game, but what we’re looking for is intention. ” – CSK head coach Stephen Fleming knows exactly what his team needs.
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