CSK seeks to return to winning ways against RCB to go up the points table

Former and present captains of India – Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli – would once again face off against each other when their teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would clash for the second time this evening at the league-stage of the on-going Indian Premier League (IPL), 2018 cricket tourney which has cast a magic spell on millions of cricket-crazy Indians.

CSK is also aware of a resurgent Mumbai Indians, led ably by Rohit Sharma, which trounced Kings XI Punjab yesterday at Indore, with Rohit driving a firm message that the team is ‘very much in the hunt’ to make it to the play-off stage.  As of now, the points tally doesn’t reveal much as each of the eight teams still has the mathematical possibility of making it to the play-off stage.

CSK would do well to pull up its socks as it has lost two of its last three games now.  CSK’s last match against KKR at Kolkata went in the home side’s favour, a defeat which would have hurt CSK’s fans a lot.  The convincing manner in which the victory was fashioned by rookie Shubman Gill and veteran Dinesh Karthik was something CSK would have to think over and over again to come up with a feasible solution to how to bowl in ‘death’ overs and which bowler(s) to be made use of during this stage in case Bravo is forced to have an ‘off-day’ with the ball.

Though CSK has a powerful batting line-up, the lull in scoring during the middle overs (from 11-15) hurt the team quite heavily during the last match.  It is high time the team management decided whether it should still persist with a struggling Faf du Plessis or replace him with Murali Vijay, who is more comfortable against spin bowling.  Also, the wisdom of sending Ravindra Jadeja ahead of a convincing hitter in the form of Dwayne Bravo has defied logic besides disappointing legion of CSK fans.

Despite being led by a confident-looking Virat Kohli, the best batsman in the world in all formats put together, RCB still had felt the absence of its ‘360 degree’ hitter AB de Villiers who returns for tonight’s game in place of de Kock (away for a wedding).  It is, however, not clear whether AB or Brendon McCullum or Parthiv Patel (seen training hard last evening) would keep wickets in today’s match.

CSK still leads the head-to-head encounters with RCB (13-7) and has won the last five successive games against this opponent.  This would be the first time the two teams would meet each other at CSK’s new-found home of Pune.  Incidentally enough, Dhoni and Kohli happen to be the highest scorers against RCB and CSK (respectively)!

Players to look for:

CSK: Watson, Raina, Dhoni, Bravo
RCB: Kohli, de Villiers, Grandhomme, Chahal