Super Kings resume home run versus Knights
For all its pomp and riches, the Indian Premier League also turns its benevolent gaze on the underdogs, those who struggle to get an early rating but have their moment in the sun during the course of the Twenty20 competition. Rajasthan Royals winning the inaugural edition in 2008 is still spoken of after the Shane Warneled team cocked a snook at the other sets of carefully assembled stars. Since then, a slew of individual performances have lit up the league in its 10-year existence. Entering IPL 2018, knowing glances were thrown at Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, both twice former champions who meet here on Tuesday. MS Dhoni’s side were dubbed the ‘Dad’s Army’ as many past stalwarts were bought back in the players’ auction on the team’s return after a two-year ban in the 2013 spot-fixing scandal. And Chennai Super Kings won Kolkata Knight Riders won MS Dhoni needs eight more runs to get to 3000 runs for CSK. He’d become the sixth batsman in IPL history to get to the mark for a single team. Imran Tahir needs two wickets to complete a half century of wickets in IPL. few knew what to make of a reshuffled KKR. It was seen as arguably the weakest.
Upstaging holders Mumbai Indians and RCB respectively will add energy to the CSK-KKR clash, but it is likely to face heat of a different kind. Tamil Nadu political parties and farmers are demanding implementation of the Supreme Court-mandated institutional mechanism for release of Cauvery water by Karnataka and their leaders feel the time is not right for an IPL game in the state.
The sentiment for Tuesday’s game though won’t be just political as the Men-in-Yellow play their first game in Chennai since May 10, 2015. CSK’s immense popularity apart, fans at the Chidambaram Stadium are pretty much assured of their team’s victory – Dhoni and Co enjoy a nearly 80 percent success rate (won 30/39 matches with one game tied).
CSK are likely to be without Kedar Jadhav, whose boundary sealed a thrilling one-wicket win over Mumbai Indians with a ball to spare, due to a hamstring injury. South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis is expected to step in after sitting out the first game.
KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik too will be at home. The former Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy team skipper’s stock has gone up overnight after pulling off a win over RCB.
Shah Rukh Khan’s purple warriors lost their biggest pace weapon – Mitchell Starc – before IPL 2018 began, but got the job done through spinners with Sunil Narine’s pinch-hitting role as opener and Nitish Rana’s twoin-two (AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli) with his part-time off-spin showing there are many ways to skin a cat.
CSK though are likely to pin hopes on spin at home, after Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja shared just five overs (1/46) at the Wankhede on Saturday.