There is an aura around the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK), easily the most popular team among the eight teams vying for honours in the on-going Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament to which everyone in the country – cutting across barriers of gender, age, religion, caste, creed, colour – have taken a huge liking to the men in yellow.

There is, however, an air of uncertainty prevailing in and around the historic MAC Stadium, Chepauk when the wicket-keeper-batsmen duo of Dhoni and Dinesh Karthi would be locking horns as captains for the first time.  Leading political parties and NGOs have appealed to the cricket-crazy Chennaiites to stay away from watching the match live so as to send a strong signal to the entire country about the Cauvery row.

Security has been beefed up enough but uncertainty looms large over the conduct of the match, though the organizers exuded confidence that sanity will prevail and that politics and sports won’t be mixed.  Chennai is to host seven matches in all.  Dinesh Karthik was clearly uneasy and evaded a scribe’s query when he was asked if he would don a black arm-band (as a Tamil) to protest against the non-setting up of a Cauvery Management Board (CMB) by the Centre.

On the sporting front, though, both the teams are feeling optimistic after winning their respective opening matches in the on-going tournament.  CSK beat Mumbai on last Saturday’s opener thanks to Bravo’s heroics while KKR put it easily across RCB thanks to a whirlwind 50 by spinner-turned-opener Sunil Naraine.  Sunil’s exploits at the top have been becoming some sort of folklore back in the Windies, we’re told.

As always, the Chennai crowds, counted among one of the most knowledgeable crowds in world cricket, are expected to back both the teams though their support for the home team would be of top-notch.  As far as the weather is concerned, April in Chennai hardly offers any solace to anybody and it is expected to be a hot and humid evening at MAC Stadium, helped to some extent by the winds from the nearby coast.

CSK is a clear leader among the head-to-head battles with KKR so far, winning 6 out of their previous 10 encounters.  Kedar Jadhav’s injury may pave way for local boy Murali Vijay to open along with Shane Watson.  Harbhajan and Mark Wood, who fared poorly with the ball against MI, may find themselves replaced with Karn Sharma and Lungi Ngidi, it is believed.  KKR is likely to retain the same team which beat the RCB.

Players to watch out for:

CSK: Murali Vijay, Raina, Dhoni and Ngidi (if he plays)
KKR: Sunil Naraine, Uthappa, Mitchell Johnson, Dinesh Karthik