The 49th match in the round robin stage of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) will witness Chennai Super Kings (CSK) locking horns with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Dubai International in Dubai (UAE) later on Thursday evening.

The IPL 2020 match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will commence at 7:30 pm. The toss for the encounter will be held at 7:00 pm (IST)

Presently occupying the fifth place in the points table, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would eye a win over bottom placed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to inch closer to a playoff berth.

With nothing to lose after being already ousted from the knockout race, CSK will look to play the party spoilers for Kolkata Knight Riders just like they did against Royal Challengers Bangalore. CSK would come into the contest high on confidence after a dominant 8-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore a few days ago.

KKR would be well aware of the fact that they are still in contention for a playoff berth, hence a slip up against Dhoni and co could prove costly at the fag end of the round robin fixtures.

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KKR Will Eye Nothing But A Win To Keep Their Play-Off Hopes Alive

With a power packed batting lineup, KKR would yearn for consistency which has been their major problem all through the season. With the exception of opener Shubman Gill, the middle order boasting Eoin Morgan, Nitesh Rana and Dinesh Karthik have not quite come to the fore. The indifferent form of power hitter Andre Russell has also added to the batting woes of the Knights.

KKR's bowling has got the firepower to wreck through the best of batting lineups. If Pat Cummins and Lockie Ferguson rack up serious pace, the spin duo of Varun Chakravarty and Sunil Narine can cast a web around the best of batsmen. The support cast for the frontline spinners has not bad either with Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Prasidh Krishna doing a steady job.

CSK Would Look To Play Party Spoilers Against Strong Play-Off Contender KKR

Chennai Super Kings would look to add a second straight win in the back end of the tournament after a dominant win over RCB. We might witness another set of youngster taking to the field with skipper Dhoni and the think tank clearly of the view of giving an opportunity for youngsters to express themselves.

It was heartening to see Ruturaj Gaikwad play a free flowing innings against RCB and expressing himself after a dismal run early in the season. One could witness either spinner Sai Kishore or seamer KM Asif making it to the playing XI at the expense of seasoned all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Seam bowler Deepak Chahar will be once again look to make early inroads with the new ball for CSK.

CSK would also like their batting mainstay Faf Du Plessis to get back among the runs after a couple of poor outings in their recent set of matches. Their fortunes with the bat also rest with experienced campaigners in Ambati Rayadu and MS Dhoni, all of whom have been rather lackluster.

All eyes will once again be on all-rounder Sam Curran who has been the shinning Knight for CSK in an otherwise dismal outing. Dhoni and Co. will look for Curran's all-round heroics to upstage the Knight Riders at Dubai.

Here are the full squads for Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020:

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik(w), Eoin Morgan(c), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell, Kuldeep Yadav, Sandeep Warrier, Siddhesh Lad, Nikhil Naik, Tim Seifert, Chris Green, Rinku Singh, Ali Khan, Tom Banton, Shivam Mavi, Manimaran Siddharth

Chennai Super Kings Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), N Jagadeesan, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Monu Kumar, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, KM Asif, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazlewood