IPL 2020, CSK vs RR Preview: Battle For Survival! Chennai Super Kings And Rajasthan Royals Will Look For A Win To Stay Afloat

Match Preview Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals IPL 2020 UAE: The two struggling teams have six points from nine games, but the defending champions are placed above based on net run-rate. With just five matches each remaining for both the teams, the road ahead is definitely going to be a tough and tricky one

IPL 2020: The 3 times Champion Chennai Super Kings and the winner of the title in 20208, Rajasthan Royals are at the bottom of the points table in IPL 2020 and will be facing each other for a clash of survival today in Abu Dhabi with their hopes of staying afloat in the tournament after a disastrous start to the 2020 edition. Both CSK and RR have struggled to gain momentum so far and are placed seventh and eighth on the points table in the eight-team competition. With just three wins from six games for both teams, today's clash is a do-or-die game for the former champions. Both sides need to win their remaining five matches to have any hope of qualifying. CSK’s campaign has suffered due to the absence of key players like Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh. The team suffered a big blow during its clash against Delhi Capitals when Dwayne Bravo picked up a groin injury, which is going to keep him out of action for the next few days. Moreover, CSK dropped too many catches in their clash against Delhi – they gave three lives to the centurion Shikhar Dhawan – and would look to improve on that. The three pillars for CSK – Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, and Ambati Rayudu – all fired but MS Dhoni failed, as did Sam Curran with the bat. However, Curran somewhat made up for the failure with the bat with returns of 1/35 in four overs, which included a four-run 19^th over. For Royals, much like CSK, its issues stem from its batting unit. Their key batsmen haven’t delivered. The one silver lining though is the fact that Steve Smith finally managed to score a half-century in a losing cause against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The two struggling teams have six points from nine games, but the defending champions are placed above based on net run-rate. With just five matches each remaining for both the teams, the road ahead is definitely going to be a tough and tricky one, and they know they cannot afford any more lapses from hereon. One good thing for RR is the return to form of their skipper Steve Smith, who made 57 on Saturday, but star all-rounder Ben Stokes is yet to fire after having joined the team late. While Jos Buttler has not been consistent enough with the bat. Jofra Archer has been in red-hot form for Rajasthan, and despite the onslaught by de Villiers that inflated the Englishman's figures Archer would back himself to come back strong. Team Squads Chennai Super Kings: Murali Vijay, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Kedar Jadhav, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Lungi Ngidi, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, R. Sai Kishore, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith (Captain), Jos Buttler (Wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, Robin Uthappa, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Mayank Markande, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, Rahul Tewatia, Shashank Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anirudha Joshi, Tom Curran, and Anuj Rawat.