Exciting Matches, Great Cricket, Nail bitters, Hear Stoppers, and whatnot. The Indian Premier League never fails to impress us. The next match on the cards is match number 8, and it is going to be regal. This is because we have kings on both sides as the Chennai Super Kings take on the Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 16th April (Friday). Who will take the crown in this battle of the kings we will have to wait and watch.
The Punjab Kings weren’t able to close games well last year have finally won a close encounter against the Rajasthan Royals and will certainly be extremely confident going into this one. Their game against the men in pink saw 438 runs being scored in 40 overs. They would certainly want to concede less this time and might want to tighten their lines while bowling, not giving the batsman many chances.
Theoretically, this match can be said to be 3 IPL trophies vs None, but MS Dhoni & Co. haven’t been in the greatest of form lately. They certainly received a boost when Mr. IPL, Suresh Raina himself was back among the runs in the previous game against Delhi. They would want to carry on their batting form but will certainly want to bowl better. The Chennai Super Kings bowlers were not up to the mark last game and were hit around by the two Delhi openers.
Punjab Kings batted beautifully in the last game with their captain KL Rahul leading from the front scoring 91. He silenced all those who criticized him for his poor strike rate last season by scoring at 182.0. Deepak Hooda was another one who took matters into his own hands and smashed the bowlers around the park. The Universe Boss scored a fluent 40 and was looking set for a big score before he fell to part-timer Riyan Parag. Punjab will be wanting to bat with such confidence even in this game.
The 3-time IPL champions will also be pleased with the way they batted. They scored just 33 runs in the powerplay but bounced back superbly. Suresh Raina showed us glimpses of his former self. Chennai is looking much more settled with Raina back in the mix. Moeen Ali was promoted up the order and looked in great touch. MS Dhoni, what can we say about him. He was dismissed for a duck in the previous game. The whole country is still waiting to see the world cup winning captain amongst the runs. Everyone adores him and will be hoping that he plays a big innings at a stadium that will be etched in his and our memory forever.
Punjab Kings conceded 217 runs in their first game against Rajasthan. It would have been 223 if it wasn’t for a few inches. The management and the captain will surely want their bowlers to bowl much better and try to restrict the batsman more. Mohammad Shami and Arshdeep Singh were pretty good at the death and Punjab would really want them to continue bowling well.
The batting and bowling of the Chennai Super Kings were poles apart. While they batted phenomenally, their bowling was just not up to the mark. Deepak Chahar who is known to swing the ball both ways just couldn’t find swing with the new ball and went for runs. Shardul Thakur who starred for India in recent India vs England series was also smashed left right and center. The only bright spot in the bowling was Dwayne Bravo who bowled a tidy 4-0-28-1.
Chennai Super Kings will miss out on both their international recruits Jason Behrendoff and Lungi Ngidi as they’re still in quarantine. Coach Stephen Fleming mentioned that they trust their Indian quicks and also have Sam Curran who has been CSK’s X Factor since last season.
Head to Head: Punjab Kings vs Chennai Super Kings
Played: 23
CSK won: 14
PBKS won: 9
Historically Chennai Super Kings has the upper hand in this tie. In their last 8 encounters, Chennai has managed to beat Punjab 6 times including both the times last season.
Weather and Pitch Report
The temperature is going to be around 30 degrees with 57% humidity. There is no chance of rain so everything will proceed smoothly. The pitch at the Wankhede Stadium is a mixture of red and yellow soil with enough clay content. So one expects decent bounce with great assistance for the batsman. The pacers have generally found swing in the initial stages of an innings with the new ball. Dew will play an important part and captains will prefer to bowl after winning the toss. We might be in for another high-scoring game.
Team News
Punjab Kings: They have no injuries and are expected to field the same 11, although the management might be tempted to play Chris Jordan in place of Riley Meredith.
Chennai Super Kings: They are missing their two foreign fast bowlers and therefore might have to rely on the same 11 to do the job for them.
Squads
Punjab Kings –KL Rahul (C, WK), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkane, Deepak Hooda, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Mandeep Singh, Murugan Ashwin, Prabhsimran Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Sarfaraz Khan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith Moises Henriques
Chennai Super Kings – MS Dhoni( C, WK), Suresh Raina, Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, K Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Harisankar Reddy, K Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth, R Sai Kishore, Jason Behrendorff
