The case has been quite the reverse with SRH. They are languishing at the bottom of the points table with a solitary win from their five games. In their last encounter, they came close to winning before, eventually, going down to Delhi Capitals in the Super Over. SRH will need to start winning very soon. Else their chances of qualifying for the IPL 2021 playoffs would be extremely slim.
For CSK, their match against RCB was pretty much about the Ravindra Jadeja show. The batsman whipped Harshal Patel for five sixes in the last over of CSK’s innings. He then claimed three wickets, two of them big ones of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, both of them bowled. That wasn’t all. Jadeja even ran out Dan Christian with a direct hit.
There were other positives too for CSK from the match. Faf du Plessis carried on his good form with a fifty while Ruturaj Gaikwad too was impressive for the second game in a row. The trio of Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and skipper MS Dhoni haven’t been consistent. So that’s one area CSK would keep an eye on. In the bowling, veteran Imran Tahir made an immediate impact with figures of 2 for 16.
SRH would be desperate to get their act right in the middle-order. The question is, do they actually have the players to do it. A line-up consisting Virat Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar doesn’t inspire much confidence, which means David Warner Jonny Bairstow and Kane Williamson, again, might have to do the bulk of the scoring. They cannot bring in Jason Roy due to the four overseas players limit.
The bowling is heavily dependent of Rashid Khan. With T Natarajan ruled out and the status of Bhuvneshwar Kumar unclear Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul will be under pressure to perform. Jagadeesha Suchith played a smart cameo against DC to take the game to the Super Over. That, and Williamson’s knock, were among the few positives for SRH from the last game.
Predicted XIs
CSK: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf Du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (C and WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir
SRH: David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Kane Williamson, Virat Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Jagadeesha Suchith, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul
--Renin Wilben Albert