Confident KKR run into charged-up CSK
With the 5th encounter in the Indian Premier League [IPL] Chennai Super Kings will return home after 1000-odd days. The men led by MS Dhoni will face Kolkata Knight Riders, captained by another man from Chennai—Dinesh Karthik.
After pulling off a victory with their valiant efforts against Royal Challengers Bangalore, KKR will have their job made tough at Chennai by the thousands of fans who will roar to welcome their beloved team. On the other hand, CSK will have to tighten the loose ends that had nearly cost them their opening match against Mumbai Indians.
Chennai Super Kings
With their key soilder Kedar Jadhav out of the troop, Chennai will have to slip Ambati Rayudu down the order who could not be a potential opening batsman for the side in the first match. This will unbar a spot for either Murali Vijay or Narayan Jagadeesan to join Shane Watson at the top.
The spin-bowling friendly wicket in Chennai will yield enough advantage for the home team with the number and variety of spinners they have in the squad. However, in the pace attack, Mark Wood’s expensive bowling figures against Mumbai could see Lungisani Ngidi joining the fray in place of him.
Predicted XI: Shane Watson, Murali Vijay/Narayan Jagadeesan, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir
Kolkta Knight Riders
After the kind of performance KKR exhibited in their first match against RCB, making any change in the squad is not a must. However, they would want to see some runs coming from Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa’s willows who could not provide enough support to Sunil Narine who went all guns blazing against the opponents in the last game.
Although they have Uthappa at no. 3, Ishank Jaggi could come in for Rinku Singh and switch positions with Nitish Rana or Dinesh Karthik in the batting order. Otherwise, it will be another match without the great young bunch KKR have in some U-19 World Cup winning players.
Predicted XI: Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c&wk), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Piyush Chawla, Mitchell Johnson, Kuldeep Yadav, Vinay Kumar
Prediction
The Chennai-based franchise have the backing of the statistics as they have won over 70 percent of their matches at home. They also have an upper hand in the head-to-head comparisons in both home & away matches against KKR.
CSK will surely want to mark their return to the city that has decorated itself in yellow to show their love for the team. KKR, on the other hand, will have to defeat all the odds to clinch a victory in the unfavorable conditions.
Picture credit: Getty Images
