What is the recipe of success to CSK?

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) meets Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 29^th league match of the ongoing IPL-XIII in UAE. It’s a do-or-die kind of a scenario for CSK, which needs to win at least six matches to enter play-offs (it’s mandatory for a team to win 8 out of 14 matches). CSK was in a similar situation in 2010 and staged a remarkable turn-around to win the trophy that year.

CSK has played once with all other 7 opponents and tomorrow’s match in Dubai marks the ‘second round’ of league matches as far as CSK is concerned. In an unprecedented manner, CSK has been struggling match-after-match; one thing which remained the same in all the seven matches is that CSK has invariably batted second in all these matches.

Whither chase-masters?

Known to chase down huge targets with ease in the past, CSK has been rather uncharacteristically finding it difficult even to chase moderate targets. This is totally not in tune with what we have got used with CSK’s performances in the past which fetched it the coveted trophy not once or twice but thrice! As such, fans are looking forward eagerly for a turn-around in fortunes for their team.

Time for MSD to fire

Though Faf and Watson have been doing well at the top, CSK might do well to try out new things like sending Sam Curran to open with Watson, followed by Rayudu and Faf. That the rest of the batsmen fail to click makes this trio’s task much harder. However, a batsman like Rayudu should not only look to save his wicket but also try to accelerate the run rate to reduce the pressure on the lower order batsmen.

Coming to middle order, MSD playing up at No.5 followed by Jagadeesan, Jadeja and Bravo could be handy so that Bravo is available if the chase became stiff. Jagadeesan should build on the confident start that he showed in his very first outing on Saturday.

As MSD opined recently, it would be better for batsmen to go for big shots quite frequently rather than wasting the middle-overs by just rotating strike. MSD even went to the extent of saying that he won’t mind team getting all out in 16 overs chasing a huge target rather than failing to chase and keeping wickets intact. MSD, the ‘best finisher’ in this format, should start firing right from the first ball.

All-rounders Jadeja, Bravo and Curran should bat wisely and bowl with guile besides contributing with tight fielding in the outfield.

Bowling has been rather good with Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur and Jadeja doing well. Bravo needs more wickets; so does Karn Sharma.

SRH too in dire need of a win

After losing its last match against RR from a winning position, SRH needs to win against CSK to get some confidence back in its ranks. Bairstow, Warner, Manish and Williamson have been firing consistently; on the bowling front, Natarajan, Rashid Khan and Sandeep Sharma have been contributing well. Khaleel and Abishek would do well to strengthen the bowling.

Expected XI:

CSK: Watson, du Plessis, Rayudu, Jagadeesan, MSD, Jadeja, Bravo, Sam Curran, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur and Karn Sharma

SRH: Warner, Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Williamson, Priyam Garg, Sandeep Sharma, Abdul Samad, Khaleel Ahmed, Abishek, Rashid Khan and Natarajan