In the 29th match of the 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings will play against each other on Tuesday, scheduled to take place at Dubai International Stadium. Chennai will be eyeing victory in tonight's game to keep their hopes alive in the tournament. CSK is the only team that has made it to the IPL playoffs every season.
Chennai and Hyderabad will face each other for the second time this season where Dhoni's team will try to avenge their 7-run defeat in the last match against Sunrisers. 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 match against Hyderabad, it will not be easy for Chennai Super Kings to return to victory as there are many flaws in the team's batting.
There was a time when Chennai was considered as the best team to chase the target but this season so far, Mahi's yellow army has not been able to win a single match while chasing, which shows how much pressure the team's batting is under.
Barring Faf Duplessis and Shane Watson in the tournament, other Chennai batsmen have consistently failed to do well. In such a situation, captain Dhoni will have to choose the batsmen with great caution in the playing eleven.
Middle order continues to be the biggest cause of concern for the team. This is the reason Kedar Jadhav had to sit out in the last match. Lower order also seems to be a failure when under pressure, with batsmen like Dhoni, Bravo and Jadeja.
CSK bowlers are doing better than the batsmen. Deepak Chahar and Jadeja have been successful in leaving their mark. Bravo's return has balanced the team but Curran, Shardul Thakur and Karn Sharma needs to perform well. Spinners Jadeja and Karn Sharma will be expected to perform better.
On the other hand Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen are doing well in the tournament. In batting, Jonny Bairstow and David Warner are in form and Manish Pandey also scored 54 runs in the last match. Kane Williamson is also supporting the team well. However, the absence of Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma in lower order is a worry for the team.
Hyderabad bowling is on the back foot after Bhuvneshwar Kumar and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh were eliminated from the tournament.However, leg-spinner Rashid Khan and yorker specialist T Natarajan have been able to leave a mark with their bowling.
Full Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Captain), Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Billy Stanlake, Johnny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shrivats Goswami, Siddharth Kaul, Khalil Ahmed , T. Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Sandeep Bawanka, Fabian Allen, Abdul Samad, Sanjay Yadav
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi , Michelle Santner, KM. Asif, Narayan Jagadishan, Monu Kumar, Rituraj Gaikwad, R.K. Sai Kishore, Josh Hazlewood, Sam Curran.