In the 29th match of the ongoing 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, the three-time IPL champion Chennai Super Kings will take on the 2016 season champion Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dubai International Stadium. This season so far, both teams have faced each other before in the tournament in which Hyderabad defeated CSK by 7 runs.
In tonight's game, both the teams will be aiming to return to the winning path, for which Chennai and Hyderabad will have to come out in this match with a strong playing XI.
In the current tournament, Chennai Super Kings have so far suffered defeat in 5 of the 7 matches and the team is ranked 7th in the points table. At the same time, Sunrisers Hyderabad are 5th in the points table with 3 out of 7 wins.
In the history of IPL, Chennai has been considered as the best team to chase the target but so far this year its batsmen have failed. They have so far got five defeats chasing the target. CSK's star openers Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis did well in the top order but the middle order will now have to perform better.
After the relentless consistent bad performances from Kedar Jadhav, Chennai had benched him in the last match and replaced him with Narayan Jagadishan, who scored 33 off 28 balls and stiched a solid partnership with Ambati Rayudu (42 off 40 balls). However, after both were dismissed, Chennai's batting collapsed and they ultimately lost the game.
Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo have also failed to score runs. Dhoni too has not been able to score as fast as the team and the fans expect him to. Dhoni himself has admitted that the CSK batsmen would have to perform better if they were to win the matches.
The condition of Sunrisers is also not very good. They have won 3 out of 7 matches and are 5th in the points table. Batting is not a concern for the Sunrisers as Jonny Bairstow, captain David Warner, Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson are consistently scoring well but bowling has emerged as their weak side.
SRH vs CSK Fantasy 11 Team Prediction: Faf Du Plessis (captain), David Warner (vice-captain), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sam Curran, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Khalil Ahmed, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.
Chennai Super Kings Probable Playing XI: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Narayan Jagadishan, MS Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Probable Playing XI: David Warner (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Khalil Ahmed and Sandeep Sharma.