ABD likely to return against CSK

pune — Chennai Super Kings will aim to improve their bowling and fielding and return to the winning ways when they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in a crunch Indian Premier League encounter on Saturday.

Batting-heavy CSK slipped to a six-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday night due to some sloppy fielding and a poor bowling effort.

The KKR spinners bowled superbly to keep the MS Dhoni-led team to 177/5. Shubman Gill and Dinesh Karthik then took advantage of inexperienced bowlers like KM Asif to get KKR past the line.

Ravindra Jadeja also dropped KKR opener Sunil Narine twice on 6 off consecutive deliveries.

It is a must-win game for Virat Kohli and Co who are in the fifth spot, having won three of their eight matches.

RCB too have some batting problems with only Kohli leading from the front, amassing 449 runs in nine matches.

RCB will expect to welcome back star South African batsman AB de Villiers, who missed out games due to fever.

He has scored 280 runs in six games and has looked in fine touch. They also require Quinton de Kock (201 runs in 8 games) and Brendon McCullum (122 runs in 5 games), who are yet to play to their potential, to chip in. CSK lost comprehensively to Mumbai Indians by eight wickets on April 28, resulting in them dropping to second spot in the points table.

The CSK batters have been doing well with Ambati Rayudu, Australian Shane Watson, West Indian Dwayne Bravo, skipper Dhoni and Suresh Raina contributing regularly.

Rayudu, especially, has batted well both as an opener and at number four, scoring 391 runs so far. Dhoni, who remained unbeaten on 43 against KKR, has reminded his critics that he is not past his prime and will be expected to continue his purple patch with the bat against the Kohli-led RCB.