The 49th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to take place between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Dubai on Thursday, October 29.
The game holds little significance for the three-time champions as CSK is already out of contention for a berth in the playoffs.
However, KKR has to win their two remaining games to remain in the race for the Playoffs. Especially, after the demoralising loss against Kings XI Punjab on Monday at Sharjah.
The five-match winning streak for KL Rahul’s men is giving headaches to KKR, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). All four teams are fighting for the fourth place in the Playoffs and it may boil down to net run-rate at the end of the round-robin league.
Recent losses for Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and Delhi Capitals (DC) has ripped open the table, with no team confirming their berth for the Playoffs, thus far.
Therefore, the deciding week of the league stage of IPL is slated to be a riveting affair, guaranteeing edge-of-the-seat action.
KKR’s batting unit has been highly inconsistent this season. Ex-captain Dinesh Karthik is in dire need for runs. The likes of Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, and Rahul Tripathi only have sporadic performances to show for but have failed as a group.
Brendon McCullum and Co. would be expecting a better show with the bat. Andre Russell’s absence from the XI has hurt the balance of the team. Which means, there is an additional pressure of expectations from the likes of captain Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson and Sunil Narine.
KKR, currently, is placed
fifth in the points table, with 12 points in their bag and two games in hand.
CSK’s role, on the other hand, is that of party-poopers. Captain MS Dhoni would dearly want to go back home with 12 points, and put to rest CSK’s disastrous IPL 2020 campaign.
The ‘Men in Yellow’ looked sharp with the ball in the game against RCB in the by-gone weekend. Hence, the pivotal clash in the game should be between CSK’s bowlers and KKR batsmen. The last time the two teams met, KKR won the game by 10 runs.
Here’s the Predicted XI for the two sides:
CSK:
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Monu Kumar
KKR:
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
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