With the double- headers weekend giving us some epic encounters, the Indian Premier League will be back to its routine on Monday with Chennai Super Kings taking on the Rajasthan Royals at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The clash of the bottom dwellers will mark the 37th match of the Indian Premier League 2020.
With both the teams having played 9 games this season and having managed only 3 wins each, their hopes of making it to the play-offs seem very slim now. The 2019 runners-up find themselves 6th on the points table with 6 points. While Steven Smith and Co. are placed 7th on the points with 6 points but a lower net run rate than the Chennai team.
The last time the two sides met in Sharjah, RR came out as the better side as the Chennai Super Kings fell short by 16 runs. The coin fell in favor of MS Dhoni and they chose to chase down the score. The Rajasthan Royals with the help of Sanju Samson and Steven Smith amassed 216 runs on the board. The Men in Yellow were provided a decent start by their openers, which was later capitalized on by the star batsmen Faf du Plessis. though , the score of 216 seemed one too many for the Chennai side.
Both the teams will face-off against each other on the back of losses as CSK were defeated by the Delhi Capitals courtesy of a brilliant century by their opener Shikhar Dhawan and late surge of Axar Patel. Rajasthan Royals too seemed in a winning position after scoring 177 against the Bangalore side. But, AB de Villers who once again donned the cape to take RCB to their 6th win of the season.
There still lies some hope for both sides to make it to the play-off. But, this encounter could decide their fate and the team that finishes the second best could well be knocked out of the tournament.
Match Toss Time: 17:30 Local (19:00 IST)
Match Start Time: 18:00 Local (19:30 IST)
Match Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Weather Report
Clear skies are reported for the day with no chance of spoil-sport whatsoever. The temperature is reported to be hovering in the early thirties range. While the humidity is expected to be the highest during the first innings- around the 52% mark.
Pitch
The pitch in Abu Dhabi is undoubtedly the slowest among the three and likely to behave the same. As seen in the previous matches any score of 160 plus by the team batting first seems to put the chasing team under immense pressure. With the due not playing a significant role in the last few games the same can be expected in this encounter as well.
Team News
Chennai Super Kings have been struck by a huge blow as their key all-rounder Dwyane Bravo is once again injured and is likely to miss out at least a week of the action. This could mean Imran Tahir could make a return to the side, given the slow nature of the Abu Dhabi pitch.
While, Kedhar Jadhav who did not have much role to play in the last game could be replaced with the wicket-keeper Batsman N. Jagadeesan who did show great resistance on his debut.
Rajasthan Royals look well balanced and the few changes they made about with their batting line-up seemed to have worked in the favor. The management are likely to go ahead with the same Xl that had a decent game against the Bangalore side barring the awe- inspiring innings of AB de Villers that took the game away from the RR.
Probable Playing Xl
Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Kedar Jadhav/N. Jagadeesan, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma
Rajasthan Royals (RR): Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi
CSK vs RR Fantasy Team
Jos Butler, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith, Robin Uthappa, Sam Curran, Rahul Tewatia, Deepak Chahar, Kartik Tyagi, Jofra Archer
Captain Picks: Faf du Plessis (CSK), Steven Smith (RR)
Vice- Captain Picks: Jofra Archer (RR), Sam Curran (CSK)
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