BATTLE OF WEAK-LINKS
CSK will hope their fragile attack improves when they take on struggling RCB in important mid-table clash tonight
Chennai Super Kings' fragile bowling vis-a-vis Royal Challengers Bengaluru's struggling batting line-up put the sides on an even keel as the two heavyweights face-off in an important mid-table clash of the IPL here on Wednesday.
In cricket, when two strong and equally performing teams have a match-up, it promises a great contest but when two sides with specific weak-links are pitted against each other it makes the contest all the more exhilarating.
Sample this: In 10 games that RCB have played so far, only six half-centuries have been recorded and out of them two belong to skipper Faf du Plessis, which is a testimony to their below-par batting show in the tourney.
In nine games that CSK have played so far, there hasn't been a single bowler (pacers and spinners), who has bowled at an economy rate of less than 7.50 runs an over. The best economy rate is of Mahesh Theeksana (7.54) while Dwayne Bravo (14 wickets) and Mukesh Choudhary (11 wickets) have had poor economy rates of 8.73 and 9.82 runs per over. The match also becomes an enticing one as Virat Kohli has finally found some form going his way and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is back in the saddle and would do everything under his control to plot the downfall of India's best batter.
Dhoni's return as CSK skipper replacing an out-of-sorts and more so bereft of ideas Ravindra Jadeja, proved beneficial as they outscored a formidable Sunrisers Hyderabad, keeping their campaign alive with six points from nine games.
While RCB are still on fifth place with 10 points from as many games, they seemed to have lost a bit of momentum with three back-to-back defeats primarily due to shoddy batting shows.
They have been all-out for season's lowest score — 68 — and have also failed to chase a modest target of 145 in another game.
Even in their last game against Gujarat Titans, Kohli's 58 off 53 balls was one of the reasons that RCB failed to score more than 170, which was below-par on a good batting track.
In Kohli (186 runs in 10 games) and skipper Du Plessis (278 from 9 games), RCB have one of the scariest of opening pairs but they haven’t really translated into
big performances.