Record-breaking Punjab Kings hope to conquer CSK and Chennai next – T20 IPL 2024

Match details

Chennai Super Kings (third) vs Punjab Kings (eighth)
Chennai, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)

Big picture – Gaikwad’s new gear as CSK (almost) end home stretch

The advantages of home comforts. The familiarity, the close circles, the minimal travel, the option of having everything around you.

CSK will play their third home game in a row on Wednesday, when they host Punjab Kings, before they hit the road again till their final home game on May 12. In this period at home, their fortress was breached by Lucknow Super Giants (read Marcus Stoinis), but they humbled the mighty batters of Sunrisers Hyderabad more recently. Now in their way stand PBKS, flying in from Kolkata after a world record T20 chase.

CSK, with their raucous home crowd backing them, will see this opportunity to tick a few boxes: they haven’t beaten PBKS since April 2021 (including a home game in 2023) and have among the worst record for sixes hit in the powerplay. They will also bid farewell to the league’s highest-wicket taker (before the LSG vs MI game), Mustafizur Rahman, who shares the top spot with Jasprit Bumrah.

What they have got right in recent games is the form of Ruturaj Gaikwad. The new CSK captain was scoring at under 119 for his first four games but has hit a new gear in the last three weeks, sky-rocketing his strike rate to 159.55 in his last five outings. It all started with a 69 off 40 against MI after he moved to No. 3 briefly and now comes into the game with two massive knocks behind him where struck at over 180 in both games: 108* off 60 against LSG and 98 off 54 against SRH. His fifties off 28 and 27 balls respectively also showed he is more keen to kick off straightaway instead of first setting a base and then launching.

What stands out is that his game has not changed while shifting gears. He has been relying on fours more than sixes, he chooses his aggressive shots carefully, and his control percentage stands at 85.40% in the powerplay this IPL, the best after 46 games this season. These scores and scoring rates bode well for CSK even more because whenever Gaikwad hits a fifty, their chances of winning the game go up to 73.68%, only worse than Shubman Gill’s 78.26% for Gujarat Titans and Suryakumar Yadav’s 73.91% for MI.

CSK have scored over 200 batting first in two of their last three games but they may need a lot more against a fired-up opposition. PBKS’ top order finally stood up in Kolkata, meaning it wasn’t just ShAshutosh (Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma) getting their runs. A return to form for Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh may have come a bit too late, but another cracking start from them will help the PBKS bowling unit, which has conceded 200 or more just once in IPL 2024.

Form guide

Chennai Super Kings WLLWW (last five matches, most recent first)
Punjab Kings WLLLL

Team news and impact player strategy

Chennai Super Kings
This will be Mustafizur’s last game. He flies home for Bangladesh’s T20Is against Zimbabwe starting May 3. They’re unlikely to make any changes to the XI or XII with Ajinkya Rahane or Shivam Dube likely to be as an Impact Player for a bowler.

Probable XII 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Tushar Deshpande, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Matheesha Pathirana, 12 Shardul Thakur

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Punjab Kings
Shikhar Dhawan could be fit for this game, but PBKS will take a final call on him on match-day. His availability could leave the management scratching their heads because it will force them to omit an in-form India batter for someone who hasn’t played in three weeks and was striking at just over 125 at the top before that.

Probable XII: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 5 Sam Curran (capt), 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Harpreet Singh

In the spotlight – Shivam Dube and Rilee Rossouw

In his third IPL game this season, Rilee Rossouw showed glimpses of his abilities when he clobbered Andre Russell’s short balls for a couple of sixes in a 16-ball 26 that may have just done the job in Kolkata. But at No. 3, he ties an opening pair of Bairstow and Pabhsimran that struck at over 225 against KKR and a middle and lower order capable of achieving similarly-dizzying numbers. After an unimpressive PSL outing, and having just been left out of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad, Rossouw will be itching to smash some more runs.

Now that Shivam Dube is in India’s T20 World Cup squad, all eyes on whether he takes the ball. He bowled regularly in Mumbai’s victorious Ranji Trophy campaign but came into this tournament with a side strain that might have affected his bowling. He has since been used as an Impact Player, but the lack of any bowling before the World Cup may not bode well for India, or Dube if he wants to be in the XI. He has started bowling in the nets, but will he bowl in the game?

Stats that matter

MS Dhoni needs another three sixes to complete 250 IPL sixes, Dube needs one more to get to 100.
Dhoni has won 150 games in the IPL, the most for an individual player.
PBKS have a 4-1 head-to-head against CSK since 2021 with victories in all four of their last meetings.
PBKS will hope Kagiso Rabada continues his run against Gaikwad. The match-up says 56 runs off 48 balls with three dismissals.
But will PBKS be brave enough to save a Rabada over for the death just for Dhoni? He has conceded just 10 runs off 22 balls against Dhoni, with one dismissal in all T20s.
Harshal Patel, who has been much better in the death overs recently, can also boast of an impressive record against Dhoni: 25 off 32 with one dismissal.

Pitch and conditions

The last four games at the Chepauk have all favoured batting, with scores regularly breaching the now not-so-insurmountable 200 mark, and with sides batting first and chasing winning two games apiece. Dew, however, has been a regular visitor there, including on Tuesday night, which might still make bowling first the preferred choice. There is currently a heat warning in Chennai with temperatures expected to hit 37 degrees Celsius with a heavy dose of humidity.

Quotes

“Mustafizur has been outstanding in conditions that probably don’t even suit his bowling. The surfaces here have been full of pace and there has been dew. His adjustment has been great. We understand international [duty] comes first, but he’s been a great addition to the side.”
CSK head coachStephen Fleming on the left-arm quick

“From a young boy, he has grown into a man. Cricket-wise, he’s thinking a lot more about his game. At practice, he doesn’t over-train, which is a good sign.”
PBKS fast-bowling coach Charl Langeveldt on their own left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh

Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo