In the battle of the backbenchers, the ninth-placed Chennai Super Kings will face the bottom-ranked Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai on Tuesday. Who has the edge? In terms of mindset, it’s the home team.
Having lost their first three games, the Super Kings bounced back with Sanju Samson’s return to form on Saturday. England seamer all-rounder Jamie Overton’s spell of 4/18 in batting-friendly conditions at the Chepauk against Delhi Capitals also went a long way in earning the five-time champions their first points this season.
On the contrary, the Knight Riders are winless after four matches. They just have one point following a no-result with Punjab Kings last week. The Knights need to overcome the disappointment of failing to close out the game against Lucknow Super Giants when they take on CSK, who will have a spring in their step.
The Knights had the LSG game in their pocket, yet it slipped out as their bowlers failed to keep rookie Mukul Choudhary at bay.
The Chepauk conditions will not be drastically different from what they were on Saturday in the CSK-Delhi game, which means the task for the KKR bowlers will be just as tough against a back-in-rhythm Samson in particular. Against a considerably potent Capitals bowling attack, Samson, taking the initial difficult times in his stride, was able to unleash his quality strokes to quickly regain tempo and flow to eventually score his fourth IPL hundred.
For the KKR bowling attack, which is their weak link, winning the psychological battle against Samson will be of great importance.
The Knights seemed quite upset as their costliest buy Cameron Green was unable to bowl in the first few games. Now that he has started bowling, Ajinkya Rahane will certainly want the Australian all-rounder to better his length and not dish out one long hop after another, as he had done against LSG.
Not just Samson, but the likes of Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis and Shivam Dube could also make KKR pay. Given the current pace group’s struggle, it may not be a bad idea to try out either Umran Malik or left-armer Saurabh Dubey.
On the batting front, Finn Allen and skipper Rahane must ensure to make use of the Powerplay, while vice-captain Rinku Singh, too, needs to pull his weight. Promoting Rovman Powell up the order could be an option.
Varun better
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who missed the last couple of games due to an injury on his non-bowling hand, has been training lately and is learnt to be in better condition. If Varun does make the XI on Tuesday, he will for sure be itching to put in a
performance of note at his home ground.
The going hasn’t been easy for Varun for over a month. But for the Knights to bounce back in this IPL, his performance, and that of Sunil Narine, will be critical.
Narine, though, had fared well in terms of economy rate in the Knights’ previous game.