Champions Chennai eye first victory, while Punjab look to get back to winning ways
CSK players celebrate a Kolkata Knight Riders wicket at Wankhede recently
Chennai Super Kings haven’t looked like defending IPL champions so far and to effect a turnaround, new skipper Ravindra Jadeja will seek improvements on multiple fronts against Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium today.
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CSK’s title defense has begun on a disappointing note. After going down to Kolkata Knight Riders in the tournament opener, they lost to new entrants Lucknow Super Giants.
Punjab Kings skipper Mayank Agarwal. Pics/BCCI; IPL
While the batting unit failed to fire in the opening game, heavy dew made life difficult for the bowlers as they failed to defend a target in excess of 200 runs.
The toss is already playing a significant role in the outcome of the games. With the second innings dew in mind, teams are opting to chase and CSK will hope to be better prepared to bowl with the wet ball.
Dew factor
“Dew will be the vital part in this edition. If you win the toss, you will look to bowl first. There was a lot of dew, the ball was not sticking to the hands, will have to practice with the wet ball,” Jadeja said after the loss to LSG.
The CSK bowling attack is also feeling the absence of pacers Deepak Chahar and Adam Milne and death-over specialist Chris Jordan.
They were forced to bowl all-rounder Shivam Dube in the penultimate over against Lucknow, which cost them 25 runs and took the match away from them.
The CSK bowlers need to tighten things up to keep the opposition batters in check. Tushar Desphande and rookie Mukesh Choudhary struggled against LSG and will have their task cut out against a strong Punjab line-up, especially at CCI, where bowling hasn’t been easy.
Batters need to step up
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, have quite a few big hitters in their ranks, but they faltered against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Smarting from a six-wicket defeat, they will be eager to return to winning ways and would expect the batters to step up.
With Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the top, Punjab can dominate the opposition attack with ease.
Odean Smith and Shahrukh Khan are also known to tonk the ball and will need to play the finisher’s role on a more consistent basis. Punjab, who added Kagiso Rabada to their attack, came up short against Andre Russell. They would quickly need to regroup and forget the hammering and bowl in the right areas.
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