Indian Premier League 2019 Match 18, Chennai Super Kings vs Kings XI Punjab: Preview, likely XIs, predictions

Chennai Super Kings will host Kings XI Punjab for the first match of the weekend, at Chepauk on April 6. Both teams have won 3 matches out of 4, but Punjab’s superior net run rate (+0.164) have kept them ahead of Chennai (-0.084) in the tournament.

Chennai’s win streak finally came to an end on Thursday, when they lost to Mumbai Indians by 37 runs at Wankhede Stadium. Till then, they had defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals (both easily), and Rajasthan Royals (with some effort).

Punjab, on the other hand, have won a tight contest against Rajasthan (where R Ashwin Mankaded Jos Buttler), and as good as pulled off a heist against Delhi. However, they flattened Mumbai, and were beaten easily by Kolkata Knight Riders.

Both teams boast of some excellent spinners – the two Ashwins, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Varun Chakravarthy for Punjab, and Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mitchell Santner for Chennai. They will certainly play a role on a dry Chennai pitch just before dew sets in.

Head to head

Chennai Super Kings hold an 11-7 advantage when these sides have played. However, the sides had won their respective home matches last year.

Punjab scored 197/7 at Mohali, Chris Gayle slamming a 33-ball 63 and KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Yuvraj Singh, and Karun Nair all contributing with cameos. But Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3-0-18-0) help restrict Chennai to 193/5 despite MS Dhoni’s 44-ball 79 not out and Ambati Rayudu’s 35-ball 49.

Lungi Ngidi (4/10) bowled out Punjab for 153 at Chepauk, Nair scoring 54 off 26 balls. Chennai won comfortably, by 5 wickets, with Suresh Raina (61* in 48 balls) and Deepak Chahar (39 in 20) leading the charge.

Key players

Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings): Chennai are playing a batsman less. They have also lost Dwayne Bravo to a hamstring injury, which means that Jadeja will probably have to bat at six. He has taken 4 wickets at an economy of under 6, but it will be interesting to see how he delivers with bat.

Sam Curran (Kings XI Punjab): Curran took a hat-trick the other night against Delhi, finishing with 4/11. He has gone for runs, but has taken 6 wickets in 6.2 overs – in other words, roughly a wicket every over. Add to that the fact that he opened batting and blasted out the Delhi bowlers last time.

Likely XIs

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir.

Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (wk), Sam Curran, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, R Ashwin (c), Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

Prediction

Chennai to win on a pitch that is likely to take turn.