IPL 2018: Confident Chennai Super Kings Up Against Sunrisers Hyderabad

After registering a thumping win over Rajasthan Royals (RR), a confident Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday. Both the SRH and the CSK have six points each from four matches, having lost just one game so far, and a win by either side will take them to the top of the table. The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK hammered RR by 64 runs on Friday at home before narrowly missing a win against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). Before losing to KXIP, CSK pulled couple of wins from the jaws of defeat against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The best part for CSK is that most of their batters have fired whenever the situation demanded.

While Dwayne Bravo (68 off 30) and Sam Billings' (56 off 23) brilliant knocks handed CSK a nail-biting win against MI and KKR respectively, skipper Dhoni (79 off 44) was almost about to pull a win against Punjab in a high-scoring clash.

Opener Ambati Rayudu has also amassed 122 runs from four outings averaging 30.50.

In their previous match, it was Australian buy Shane Watson whose scintillating knock of 106 runs propelled CSK to a massive total. Also, Chennai's most dependable batsman Suresh Raina, who made a comeback after undegoing a calf injury, also loooked good for his 29-ball 46 against RR.

In the bowling department, all-rounder Watson has led from the front, scalping six wickets from four games with an economy rate of 7.38. Also, pacer Shardul Thakur and leggie Imran Tahir have striked at regular intervals, bagging five and four wickets respectively.

On the other hand, the Kane Williamson-led Hyderabad are at the third spot in the points table with three wins from four games.

On paper, SRH possess one of the strongest batting lineups with Wriddhiman Saha

and in-form Shikhar Dhawan as openers followed by skipper Williamson along with Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, and Shakib Al Hasan.

However, in their last outing against KXIP, their batters failed in chasing a high total.

Meanwhile, with the likes Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul and Shakib Al Hasan, their bowling unit looks world-class. Both Bhuvneshwar and Kaul have bagged five and six wickets respectively.

Also, Bhuvneshwar and Kaul have maintained a decent economy rate of 6.75 and 7.25 respectively. Rashid has so far bowled the most dot balls in the league.

Overall, it could once again be an edge of the seat encounter for fans when the two best side of the league face off on a Sunday evening.

The squads:

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicket-keeper), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, David Willey.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, Shakib Al Hasan, Kane Williamson (captain), Manish Pandey, Carlos Brathwaite, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rashid Khan, Ricky Bhui, Deepak Hooda, Siddarth Kaul, T. Natarajan, Mohammad Nabi, Basil Thampi, K Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Sachin Baby, Chris Jordan, Billy Stanlake, Tanmay Agarwal, Shreevats Goswami, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Alex Hale

(With IANS inputs)