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Chennai Super Kings, currently second in the Pepsi IPL 2015 standings, will look to stretch their lead from the rest of the pack, when they take on Kings XI Punjab.CSK have won four of their five matches so far – their only defeat being against the Rajasthan Royals. The team bounced back in style after that defeat, handing the Royal Challengers Bangalore a 27-run thrashing.
Kings XI Punjab have two wins from five outings this season. In their previous outing, they came from behind to first level scores with Rajasthan Royals, and then turned on the heat in the Super Over to walk away with two points from the match. The team will be buoyed by the result in that match and will be all pumped up for battle when they take the field in this match.
The prospect of showers on match day adds an element of suspense to the contest too. There were showers on the eve of the match; while that would have certainly brought the temperatures down, it will have sent the humidity levels soaring and that presents a whole new challenge to players from both teams.
The top three batsmen in the CSK lineup are the team’s biggest match-winners. Suresh Raina has won CSK many a game single-handedly, while Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith have provided the team with blazing starts. Ashish Nehra has been the leader of the bowling unit so far in the competition. But on a Chepauk surface that is known to traditionally assist the spinners, the onus will be on the spin-bowling duo of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Coach Stephen Fleming said as much in his chat with the media on the eve of the match; he said, “The spinning aspect of our game hasn’t been as affective as it has in the previous years so far and it is one area where in this game we would like to get a bit more penetration.”
The CSK coach further added, “In our home games Ashwin has been our lead bowler. It is not that he is in bad form. Jadeja is someone we would like more from and we are working hard at it.”
KXIP have just as much ammunition in their ranks as CSK, especially on the batting front. But the impact players in the side are Virender Sehwag, Glenn Maxwell and David Miller. The T20 batting strike-rates of the three players – 148.45, 157.05 and 138.42 – best illustrates how dangerous they can be.
There is a bit of a history between R Ashwin and Glenn Maxwell; the Australian batsman boasts of a strike-rate of 262.97 against the CSK off-spinner, having scored 71 runs off 27 balls in the IPL. The off-spinner had his way when the two players squared-off in the semi-final of the World Cup 2015.
KXIP’s Virender Sehwag knows a thing or two about the CSK left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra; both players have grown up playing for Delhi and later played for India. The CSK quick has had a dream season and has been too hot to handle, even clinching the Purple Cap briefly. The battle between Sehwag and Nehra promises to make for a very good contest.
The Chennai Super Kings have a 8-7 win-loss record in IPL matches against Kings XI Punjab.
The two teams met on three occasions last season – twice in the league stage and later in the Playoff, and KXIP held their own in all the three matches. Glenn Maxwell’s 43-ball 95 powered KXIP in their chase of 206 in the first meeting in Abu Dhabi, before returning to torment CSK again, this time scoring 90 off 38 balls in Cuttack.
In the third meeting – in Qualifier 2 – Virender Sehwag turned on the heat, scoring 122 at the top of the innings and powering his team to 226. CSK fell 24 runs short then, despite Suresh Raina’s blitzkrieg 25-ball 87.
Chennai Super Kings have fielded the same XI in their five matches so far in Pepsi IPL 2015.
Chennai Super Kings have the best scoring rate of all teams in Pepsi IPL 2015 – 9.15.
Glenn Maxwell has scored more runs in IPL against the Chennai Super Kings than against any other opponent. In three innings against CSK, he has scored 198 runs at a strike-rate of 227.58. His scores against CSK read: 95 (43 balls), 90 (38 balls) and 13 (6 balls).
R Ashwin has figures of 0 for 51 in the four overs he has bowled in the last three matches. His overall economy rate in IPL matches against KXIP is 8.09 – his poorest economy rate against any of the IPL teams.
The average first innings total in matches between CSK and KXIP is 174. The team batting first has posted more than 180 in 9 of the 15 matches between the two teams. The first innings total in the last three matches between these two teams read: KXIP 226-6, KXIP 231-4 and CSK 205-4.
