A formidable Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side will be hungry to open their account on the points table as they face Dolphins in the Group A match of the Champions League T20 (CLT20) 2014 at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Monday. CSK suffered a loss at the hands of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) while Dolphins were stunned by the Mitchell Marsh cameo.
Both teams couldn’t have asked for a better venue to look for their first win. The Bengaluru wicket is known for being a batsman’s paradise. But the mindset will be completely different coming in to this game. Under MS Dhoni, this CSK side has encountered countless challenges. But the ‘been there, done that’ confidence often helps them emerge out of many troubles.
Against KKR, things went according to plan while defending 157. Out of the blue, Andre Russell sprang up to hammer his way to a fifty. If there are any vulnerable areas for CSK, then their bowling has to be one of them. Despite picking five early wickets, Russell and then Ryan ten Doeschate managed to slog at ease. A similar CSK bowling line-up was taken apart frequently in the IPL 2014. However, that doesn’t cover up for the fact that CSK should’ve posted much better than the par score at Hyderabad.
With the likes of Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis at the top, and two more match-winners to follow, this batting is similar to what Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) boasts of — they just keep coming hard at the opposition. CSK batting would be hoping to click like KXIP.
This batting formula seems to be adopted by Dolphins as well. They lost two wickets in the first over of the match but there was no stopping as batsmen came, hammered, perished. Though there’s little presence of international batting stars, CSK needs to be beware of a Russell-like onslaught again.
The Dolphins did well with the ball and had the match tilting towards them only to be snatched away by the onslaught of Mitchell Marsh and Sam Whiteman. The bowling will have to be once again on their toes as CSK with that batting line-up won’t hold anything back following a loss.
There would be little doubt that, at this venue where high-scoring records have been achieved, team winning toss will look to chase. Of whatever we saw in thefirst matches of the respective teams, this is going to be a run-fest.
Squads:
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c&wk), Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishwar Pandey, Ashish Nehra, Mithun Manhas, Pawan Negi Mohit Sharma, John Hastings, Samuel Badree.
Dolphins: Morne van Wyk (c), Cameron Delport, Cody Chetty, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Khayelihle Zondo, Daryn Smit (wk), Andile Phehlukwayo, Robert Frylinck, Keshav Maharaj, Kyle Abbott, Craig Alexander.
(Abhijit Banareis a reporter at CricketCountry. He is an avid quizzer and loves to analyse and dig out interesting facts which allows him to learn something new every day. Apart from cricket he also likes to keep a sharp eye on Indian politics, and can be followed on Twitter and blog)
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