Categories: Sports

Match Preview – CSK vs PBKS 49th Match, IPL

Match details

Chennai Super Kings (fourth) vs Punjab Kings (eighth)
Chennai, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)

Big picture – Gaikwad’s new gear

The advantages of home comforts. The familiarity, close circles and minimal travel and make a difference in a hectic IPL schedule.

CSK play their third successive game in Chennai on Wednesday before they hit the road again until their final home game on May 12. In this period, their fortress was breached by Lucknow Super Giants, but they humbled the mighty batters of Sunrisers Hyderabad more recently. Next up are the Punjab Kings, flying in from Kolkata after a pulling off a world record T20 chase.

CSK, with their raucous home crowd backing them, will see this opportunity to tick a few boxes: they haven’t beaten PBKS since April 2021 (including a home game in 2023) and have a poor record of hitting sixes hit in the powerplay. They will also bid farewell to one of the league’s highest-wicket takers , Mustafizur Rahman, who shares the top spot with Jasprit Bumrah.

What has been going well for them in recent games is the form of Ruturaj Gaikwad. The new CSK captain had a strike rate of less than 119 in his first four games but he has hit a new gear in the last three weeks, sky-rocketing his strike rate to 159.55 in his last five innings. It started with a 69 off 40 after he moved to No. 3 against MI, and he comes into this game with two massive knocks in his most recent innings: 108* off 60 against LSG and 98 off 54 against SRH. His fifties off 28 and 27 balls respectively also showed he is keen to attack straightaway instead of getting set first.

What stands out is that Ruturaj’s game has not changed while shifting gears. He has been relying on fours more than sixes, he chooses his aggressive shots carefully, and his control percentage stands at 85.40% in the powerplay this IPL, the best after 46 games this season. His scores and scoring rates bode well for CSK because whenever Gaikwad hits a fifty, their chances of winning the game go up to 73.68%.

CSK have scored over 200 batting first in two of their last three games but they may need a lot more against a fired-up opposition. PBKS’ top order finally showed up in Kolkata, meaning it wasn’t just ShAshutosh (Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma) getting their runs. A return to form for Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh may have come a bit too late for their playoff chances, but another cracking start from them will complement the PBKS bowling unit, which has conceded 200 or more just once in IPL 2024.

Form guide

Chennai Super Kings WLLWW (last five matches, most recent first)
Punjab Kings WLLLL

Team news and impact player strategy

Chennai Super Kings
This will be Mustafizur’s last game. He flies home for Bangladesh’s T20Is against Zimbabwe starting May 3. They’re unlikely to make any changes to the XI or XII with Ajinkya Rahane or Shivam Dube likely to be subbed in or out as the Impact Player for a bowler.

Probable XII 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Tushar Deshpande, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Matheesha Pathirana, 12 Shardul Thakur

Punjab Kings
Shikhar Dhawan could be fit for this game, but PBKS will take a final call on him on match day. His availability could leave the management scratching their heads because it will force them to omit an in-form Indian batter for someone who hasn’t played in three weeks and was striking at just over 125 at the top of the order.

Probable XII: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 5 Sam Curran (capt), 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Harpreet Singh

In the spotlight – Ravindra Jadeja and Rilee Rossouw

Ravindra Jadeja, the hero of CSK’s IPL 2023 final win, was promoted to No. 4 earlier this season for two innings but has now been pushed back down to the lower order. Has Jadeja had a good season with the bat? It’s not an emphatic yes because even though he scored a half-century from No. 4 and has an average of 78.50 with four unbeaten knocks, he has hit just two sixes in 119 balls and scored at a strike rate of 131.93, which doesn’t stand out all that much in what has been a high-scoring season. It will be worth watching where he bats on Wednesday, especially if CSK bat first.

In his third IPL game this season, Rilee Rossouw showed glimpses of his abilities when he clobbered Andre Russell’s short balls for a couple of sixes in a 16-ball 26. But at No. 3, he’s the link between an opening pair of Bairstow and Prabhsimran that had a strike rate of more than 225 against KKR and a middle and lower order capable of achieving similarly dizzying numbers. After an unimpressive PSL, and having just been left out of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad, Rossouw will be itching for some runs.

Stats that matter

MS Dhoni needs three sixes to complete 250 IPL sixes, Dube needs one more to get to 100.
Dhoni has won 150 games in the IPL, the most for a player.
PBKS have a 4-1 head-to-head against CSK since 2021 with victories in all four of their last meetings.
PBKS will hope Kagiso Rabada continues his run against Gaikwad. The match-up says 56 runs off 48 balls with three dismissals.
But will PBKS be brave enough to save a Rabada over for the death just for Dhoni? He has conceded just 10 runs off 22 balls against Dhoni, with one dismissal in all T20s.
Harshal Patel, who has been much better in the death overs recently, also has an impressive record against Dhoni: 25 off 32 with one dismissal.

Pitch and conditions

The last four games at Chepauk have favoured the batters, with scores regularly breaching the now not-so-insurmountable 200 mark, and sides batting first and chasing have won two games apiece. Dew, however, has been a regular factor, including on Tuesday night, which might still make bowling first the preferred choice. There is currently a heat warning in Chennai with temperatures expected to hit 37 degrees Celsius with a heavy humidity.

Quotes

“Mustafizur has been outstanding in conditions that probably don’t even suit his bowling. The surfaces here have been full of pace and there has been dew. His adjustment has been great. We understand international [duty] comes first, but he’s been a great addition to the side.”
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming

“From a young boy, he has grown into a man. Cricket-wise, he’s thinking a lot more about his game. At practice, he doesn’t over-train, which is a good sign.”
PBKS fast-bowling coach Charl Langeveldt on Arshdeep Singh

Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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