After a romping win over in the UAE leg, Chennai Super Kings would look to avoid another such collapse when they take on the dominant force of the Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League encounter.
After a romping win over in the UAE leg, Chennai Super Kings would look to avoid another such collapse when they take on the dominant force of the Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League encounter that will be held at the Barabati Stadium on Wednesday.
In the previous encounter when these two teams clashed, it was Punjab which had the better of Chennai as the former chased down a huge total with perfect ease to launch their own campaign in style. However, Dhoni’s men have turned the tide in their favour ever since that defeat and have won all their six matches after that opening game loss, and are currently at top of the IPL points table. Punjab, too, have steamrolled every opposition in the IPL but not before their match against the Mumbai Indians when the latter recorded a five-wicket victory.
Both the teams are high on batting prowess with CSK’s arsenal boasting of openers Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith who have butchered all their opposition bowlers. On the other side of the opposition, the Kings XI Punjab have been playing because of one man – Glenn Maxwell who has topped the batting charts in this year’s IPL season. Besides that, the likes of Suresh Raina and David Miller have also served their respective teams well with runs on their side.
On the bowling front, Indian pacer Mohit Sharma and spinner Ravindra Jadeja have done most of the damage for Chennai, picking up 12 and 11 wickets respectively. R Ashwin and Ben Hilfenhaus have also provided the perfect back up with seven wickets each.
For Punjab, Sandeep Sharma and Lakshmipathy Balaji have been their main target bowlers who have kept their opposition in check. Aussie speedster Mitchell Johnson, all-rounder Rishi Dhawan and spinner Akshar Patel have also contributed in the middle overs.
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparajith, Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Vijay Shankar, Ronit More, John Hastings.
Kings XI Punjab: George Bailey (C), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks, Karanveer Singh, Murali Kartik, Shivam Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Laxmipathy Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh.
