Dhoni & Co. look for winning ways
Mumbai, April 15: Chennai Super Kings would look for inspiration from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a muchimproved bowling effort when they take on a powerpacked Punjab Kings in the IPL here on Friday.
The two sides experienced contrasting fortunes in their respective tournament opener.
While CSK lost by seven wickets against Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings eked out a four-run win over Rajasthan Royals in a high-scoring thriller.
With the dew playing a crucial role at Wankhede, the side winning the toss would want to bowl first.
In their first match here, CSK posted a competitive
188 for seven, riding on fine contributions from Suresh Raina (54), Moeen Ali (36), Sam Curran (34), Ravindra Jadeja (26) and Ambati Rayudu (23).
Despite failures from the opening duo of Rituraj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis besides skipper Dhoni, CSK managed to put up a decent total on the board.
But the Chennai outfit’s bowling unit looked completely out of sorts and clueless against the DC opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, who were ominous from the word go and stitched a
138-run stand to take the game away from CSK.
The likes of Deepak Chahar, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Jadeja and Moeen Ali all went for big runs and looked rusty.
And come Friday, the onus would be on master tactician Dhoni to inspire his teammates to lift their performance and give Punjab a run for their money. But for that to happen, the CSK skipper himself needs to lead from the front after failing to score against DC.
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, had a narrow escape against RR the other despite posting a mammoth 221 for 6 on the board. Opening the batting, KL Rahul played a captain’s knock of 91 off just 50 balls. He was ably
FOR THE RECORD
Lokesh Rahul who scored 4933 runs in 140 innings of 153 matches, needs 67 runs to become the 11th Indian and 70th batsman overall to score 5000 runs in Twenty-20 matches.
Faf du Plessis who scored 5930 runs in 224 innings of 240 matches, needs 70 runs to become the sixth South African and 45th batsman overall to score 6000 runs in Twenty20 matches.
LAST YEAR’S MATCHES
Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings by 10 wickets at Dubai.
Chennai Super Kings defeated Punjab Kings by 9 wickets at Abu Dhabi.
STATS: S. PERVEZ QAISER
supported by big-hitting Chris Gayle (40 off 28) and Deepak Hooda (64 off 28).
For Punjab Kings and Rahul, batting is not at all area of concern as they showed with their performance in the opener, but just like CSK, the bowling unit remains a major worry. RR skipper Sanju Samson almost singlehandedly took the game away from Punjab Kings with his whirlwind 63-ball
119-run knock in their opener, but fell short just by four runs in the end.
Young Arshdeep Singh
(3/35) eventually emerged as Punjab’s saviour.
Besides Arshdeep, veteran Mohammad Shami
(2/33) too had a decent outting with the ball but the performance of Jhye Richardson (1/55) and Riley Meredith (1/49) should be a concern for Punjab. —