Chennai Super Kings vs Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL 2015 Match 4 Preview: CSK look to continue winning momentum

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will face off Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Match 4 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 at home in Chepauk, Chennai on Saturday. CSK will be playing their second home game in three days, while SRH will be playing their first game of the tournament. Rajasthan Royals player offered money to fix IPL 2015 match; informs BCCI

CSK started their IPL 2015 campaign with a narrow one-run victory over Delhi Daredevils, and will want to put in a more convincing performance this time around. Their batsmen were guilty of taking it too easy and went for one shot too many without giving much regard to the opposition bowlers. Indian Premier League 2015 schedule: IPL 8 match time table with venue details

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SRH are a far better bowling side than DD, at least on paper. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dale Steyn, Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, and Karn Sharma are some of the names in SRH’s bowling arsenal, so the CSK batsmen will need to be much more disciplined. IPL 2015: CSK, KKR, RCB, KXIP, MI, RR, SRH, DD full team details in IPL 8

For their part, SRH will be keen on getting off to a good start in the tournament. They never really got going in IPL 2015, and struggled to string together a bunch of wins. While their top order looks good with Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, and Kane Williamson, the middle order lacks a game-changer like Kevin Pietersen, who pulled out to play county cricket. Eoin Morgan’s form will be a concern, while Indian talents like Naman Ojha and KL Rahul are not nearly as explosive.

CSK have a lot of depth on the bowling front, so much so that Ravindra Jadeja didn’t need to bowl a single over, with Dhoni preferring Dwayne Bravo instead. If Irfan Pathan can get fit in time he will almost surely replace Ishwar Pandey in the line-up. If Dhoni feels that spin is the way to go, he could also call upon Pawan Negi. It is unlikely that CSK will make any other changes.

On the whole, it should be an engaging contest between CSK’s batsmen and SRH’s bowlers. If Steyn and co. can go past Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, and the rest, SRH will be in with a serious chance. On paper though, CSK certainly hold the advantage going in and one can never discount the Chepauk advantage, after all.

Squads:

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) : MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith,  Michael Hussey, Ishwar Pandey, Baba Aparajith, Mithun Manhas, Pawan Negi,  Rahul Sharma, Ankush Bains, Pratyush Singh, Ronit More, Eklavya Dwivedi, Matt Henry, Samuel Badree, Andrew Tye, Kyle Abbott.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH): David Warner (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, Karn Sharma, KL Rahul, Ishant Sharma, Trent Boult, Kane Williamson, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Naman Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Ashish Reddy, Parvez Rasool, Moises Henriques, Ravi Bopara, Ricky Bhui, Chama Milind, Eoin Morgan, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Hanuma Vihari.

Time: 16:00 local time

(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek and cricket fanatic. You can follow him on Twitter @ShiamakUnwalla)