The defending champions Chennai Super Kings are on the track where they left off last season. They've won both matches so far and, on the other side, the Rajasthan Royals have not tasted a win this season, where they lost both the matches despite of scoring 180+ runs.
Chennai Super Kings are looking in the great form as they won both matches while chasing. Even though they lack fire power in the bowling department they have managed to keep their opponents on the silent mode under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Still, Super Kings are playing with just three foreign players and are expected to go with the same against the Rajasthan Royals.
On the other hand Rajasthan Royals will be under pressure after losing both matches of this season despite a good showing by the batting department. Looking at their previous match where the Royals posted a huge 198 runs on the board, but their bowlers couldn't defend it. They will be keen on securing early points in the tournament, but it does not look certain for them to defeat Super Kings on their home soil. Few changes in the bowling department can be expected ahead of this clash at Chennai.
Looking at the head-to-head records, Chennai Super Kings have slight advantage over Rajasthan Royals, where they won three out of last five matches. But looking at the recent form it will be tough to the pick the winner of this match.
Now looking at the pitch, the
The defending champions Chennai Super Kings are on the track where they left off last season. They've won both matches so far and, on the other side, the Rajasthan Royals have not tasted a win this season, where they lost both the matches despite of scoring 180+ runs.
Chennai Super Kings are looking in the great form as they won both matches while chasing. Even though they lack fire power in the bowling department they have managed to keep their opponents on the silent mode under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Still, Super Kings are playing with just three foreign players and are expected to go with the same against the Rajasthan Royals.
On the other hand Rajasthan Royals will be under pressure after losing both matches of this season despite a good showing by the batting department. Looking at their previous match where the Royals posted a huge 198 runs on the board, but their bowlers couldn't defend it. They will be keen on securing early points in the tournament, but it does not look certain for them to defeat Super Kings on their home soil. Few changes in the bowling department can be expected ahead of this clash at Chennai.
Looking at the head-to-head records, Chennai Super Kings have slight advantage over Rajasthan Royals, where they won three out of last five matches. But looking at the recent form it will be tough to the pick the winner of this match.
Now looking at the pitch, the first match which was played here was the turning pitch where Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen got all out for just 70 runs. During post match presentation both teams captains showed displeasure regarding the pitch. However, after a week long the pitch curator would have worked well on it, but still there will be some assistance for the spinners.
Predicted XI
Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (C/WK), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Jos Buttler (WK), Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Rahul Tripathi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni
Players Recommendations
Wicket-Keeper: Jos Buttler (10.5 credits)
Buttler has been in stellar form from the past few months ad replicated the same in the IPL opener where he scored 69 off 43 balls against Kings XI Punjab, but failed to score against Sunrisers Hyderabad in last match. However, looking at his track record against Chennai Super Kings he will be the player to watch out for this match, where he played just 8 matches against Super Kings scored 502 runs at an average of 83.66 with the strike-rate of 162.45. He will be the key player for the Royals if they are desperate to pull out a victory.
Batsman: Shane Watson (10 credits)
It's very difficult to pick a one batsman from the list because Sanju Samson has scored century in his previous match and rest all are scoring some good runs, but we are going with the big man Watson over them because he has being plying good against the Rajasthan Royals where he played 9 matches scored 318 runs at an average of 39.75 against them. Meanwhile, he also scored a century against the Royals in last edition of IPL.
All-Rounder: Dwayne Bravo (9 credits)
There are only few options available from the all-rounder section to pick. However, due to lack of form from Ben Stokes with both bat and ball, here we are going with Bravo because he has picked 11 wickets in 10 matches at the strike-rate of 17.2 against Rajasthan Royals. He recently picked three wickets against Delhi Capitals in his last match. We can expect his to pick at least two wickets here against the Royals.
Bowler: Shreyas Gopal (8 credits)
The right-arm leggie was excellent in his previous match where he picked three wickets in his four overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Moreover, looking forward for this match Gopal has been excellent against Chennai Super Kings economically as well as in picking wickets. He played 7 matches against Super Kings so far and picked nine wickets at an economy of 7.75. In spin friendly track he will be pose some threats for Super Kings batsmen.
Captain: Jos Buttler
Vice-Captain: Shane Watson
