Confident Chennai Super Kings will aim to further brighten their chances of making the playoffs when they welcome Kolkata Knight Riders to Chepauk for an IPL 2023 clash on Sunday night.
CSK have 15 points from 12 matches and are in control of their destiny but KKR (10 points from 12 matches) have to not only stay in their matches but also pray for other results to go in their favour.
What: CSK vs KKR, IPL 2023
When: May 14 (Sunday)
Where: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: Indian time at 7:30 pm
csk team news
MS Dhoni’s team has come into the match with two wins on the bounce and as always his ‘Maad’ will be difficult to beat.
Even a couple of sixes off Dhoni’s bat is enough to rouse the Chepauk crowd and he did that in the last match against Delhi Capitals, which proved to be crucial.
For the home side, openers Devon Conway (420 runs) and Ruturaj Gaikwad are providing solid starts. The clarity of roles assigned to Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube is benefiting and playing a vital role in the CSK batting line-up.
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On a slow pitch that saw the batsmen struggling, Dubey produced some big hits and will be eyeing a repeat on Sunday.
Although Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Ambati Rayudu haven’t had the desired impact, the Super Kings have done the job well.
Among the bowlers, Mathisha Pathirana has particularly worked for the skipper. Tushar Deshpande though has been successful in picking up expensive wickets. Spinners Jadeja, Moeen and Mahesh Tikshana have been effective in putting pressure on the opposition batsmen, as the Delhi team found out on Wednesday.
kkr team news
KKR will also look to take chances based on the presence of spinners who have made an impact. How Varun Chakravarthy and leg-spinner Suyash Sharma bowl on Sunday could decide the outcome of the match. Experienced Sunil Narine has been off-colour for a major part of the IPL season and will look to rectify that.
Captain Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer have been performing well in the batting line-up and KKR will be hoping for a solid start from the openers so that the rest can build on that.
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However, it is easier said than done with Pathirana’s mix of yorkers and slower yorkers expected to have a say in the proceedings. Jadeja can be a bowler that opposition batsmen will be wary of as he hardly times them and is often accurate.
The Knight Riders will have to put behind their defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals on Thursday and go into Sunday’s match with a positive mindset. Yesterday’s defeat could hurt their chances of progressing further in the tournament.
full squad
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Akash Singh, Moeen Ali, Bhagat Verma, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangergekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Mandal, Mathisha Pathirana, Dwayne Pretorius, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rashid, Ambati Rayudu, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Ben Stokes, Mahesh Thikshana.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N. Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mandeep Singh, Aarya Desai and Johnson Charles.
with PTI inputs