By Jamie Alter
More than a battle for southern pride, this match will have a big bearing on who finishes where in the scrimmage for a spot in the final four.
Published: Apr 30, 2011, 06:03 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 30, 2011, 06:03 PM (IST)
Chennai Super Kings players celebrate a wicket during IPL4. © AFP
By Jamie Alter
Chennai: Apr 30, 2011
More than a battle for southern pride, this match will have a big bearing on who finishes where in the scrimmage for a spot in the final four. After this game, both Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers will have completed eight matches and have three home fixtures to play, and victory at the M Chidambaram Stadium will help the two mid-range teams progress closer to their goal of making the knock-out phase.
CSK, with four wins from seven matches, are just two points ahead of DC, with three victories so far. Chennai’s fortunes have been on the upswing, as two straight wins took them from second from last to the No 2 spot, though they have slipped down to fifth courtesy wins to Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. The return to form of Ravichandran Ashwin and runs from Michael Hussey and Subramaniam Badrinath has enabled them to shrug off a shaky patch and a lack of form Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina.
DC’s recent form has been chalky, with a defeat following every win. The batting has been the guilty party and it hasn’t helped that only one batsman, the captain Kumar Sangakkara, has scored more than 150 runs in the competition. The format isn’t ideal for those pitted in the middle order, but the likes of Bharat Chipli (144 runs), Daniel Christian (119), and DB Ravi Teja (61) will need to contribute much more when they get the chance.
DC will, however, take heart from their recent victory over Kochi Tuskers Kerala, inspired as it was by Ishant Sharma – purchased for $450,000 – who grabbed five wickets for the first time in Twenty20 cricket. Now if only they could get more out of Pragyan Ojha and Christian as wicket-taking options.
On paper, they have batsmen who can fire, and bowlers who have shown the ability to contain. All teams are entitled to their bad days and DC would do well to erase those bad memories as soon as possible.
Teams:
CSK (Probable): Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina, Subramanian Badrinath, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Srikkanth Anirudha, Albie Morkel, Shadab Jakati, Suraj Randiv, Ravichandran Ashwin, Doug Bollinger.
DC (Probable): Shikhar Dhawan, Sunny Sohal, Kumar Sangakkara (c&wk), Bharat Chipli, Cameron White, Daniel Christian, DB Ravi Teja, Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha.
Time: 20.00 local (14.30 GMT)
(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. His first book, The History of World Cup Cricket, is out now. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter)
