Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals, 61st Match

Sunday, May 12, 2024, 3:30 PM

Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals, 61st Match 

MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

HEAD TO HEAD
TotaL           :   28
CSK Won     :  15
RR   Won     :  13

 Four of the six games this season have been won by teams chasing, but the 35 degrees Celsius mid-afternoon temperature with 73% humidity will test the resolve of the captain considering chasing. The game will be played on Pitch No.6, a black soil surface used for the Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants games. Both those games saw CSK bat first and score in excess of 200. They won only one of those.

CSK would seem no closer to solving the puzzles that their citadel is keen on throwing their way with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad even publicly expressing a dislike for the red-soil pitch that was used last time around, against Punjab Kings. A defeat on Sunday to Rajasthan Royals will mark a second straight year with a 4-3 record and inflict severe qualification jeopardy on the holders, whose inconsistent form has left them scrambling in the 11th hour.

Conditions, however, cannot detract from a strange season, one in which injuries and erratic form has left the CSK boat with more holes than there are fingers to plug them. And there are really no easy fixes at this juncture. They have to pick one side - batting or bowling - and hope the trade-off works. For example, in Ahmedabad, they dropped Richard Gleeson and reintroduced Rachin Ravindra to address top-order troubles, but as it turned out, the Gujarat Titans plundered 231 runs and had CSK reeling at 10 for 3 in the chase.

Exacerbating the dilemma is the rapid turnaround from the last game as well as a new unknown. It is uncertain how conditions will evolve in the first afternoon game of the season here. If it takes turn, then with home-town hero Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in their ranks, the Royals could be well placed to exploit it. Having lost two close games on the bounce with the middle-order unable to close out chases, Sanju Samson and Co. will be out to chart an stress-free path into the playoffs themselves. As such, even with enough on the plate for a tasty encounter, the on-field narrative could just end up paling in comparison to the 'will he

Chennai Super Kings

While Samson has been in good touch against left-arm spin and legspin in this IPL, he has a poor record against Mitchell Santner. The New Zealand all-rounder has dismissed Samson twice in just seven balls bowled to the Royals captain.

Injuries and Availability: Matheesha Pathirana and Deepak Chahar will continue to miss out with hamstring injuries while Mustafizur Rahman has returned home for national team duties.

Probable XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, MS Dhoni (wk), Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Simarjeet Singh [Impact Sub: Ajinkya Rahane/Sameer Rizvi]

Rajasthan Royals

Ruturaj Gaikwad has a poor record against each of the Royals' three fast bowlers - Boult, Sandeep and Avesh and scores at lesser than a-run-a-ball against the former two. Boult has dismissed Gaikwad thrice in 24 balls while Sandeep and Avesh have accounted for the CSK captain once each.

Injuries and Availability: Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer missed RR's previous game. Both trained on the eve of the game but a decision on their match-readiness will likely be taken closer to the game

Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c&wk), Riyan Parag, Shubham Dubey/Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Donovan Ferreira/Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma [Impact Sub: Jos Buttler]