MS Dhoni – Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings – winners of IPL 2010 and Champions Trophy will look to make the most of the advantageous home conditions when it takes on the Inaugural edition champions – Rajasthan Royals. It’s a match which will be interesting to watch as both the teams are spin heavy and have their man to man matching made correct with respect to each other.

Rajasthan Royals are top heavy batting side depending on the swashbuckling Shane Watson to give them the impetus to the scoring. The strength of the team has always prevailed on chasing a target more often than once and being successful at most times. Warne prefers to know the target rather then set a target as he feels he has the batsmen who can chase down any score against any attack! The young and inexperienced side will look to win against the tournament defending champions who are “tigers” at their own backyard. Warne, Botha and Maneria are the three spinners who will look to make the most of the wicket and nullify the home advantage that Chennai seems to be enjoying in their previous matches.

Chennai Super Kings are bottom heavy batting line up with the stability being provided by Hussey whose role has been to bat through the innings. The strength has always been to set the target and defend it successfully. It’s amazing to understand that Chennai has won all the 4 games which it has played at home by batting first and Rajasthan has won its game at their home (Jaipur) by chasing the target. It will be really surprising to see if the captains decide to go the other way round as each of them know the strength of the other team. Chennai under Dhoni has a creditable team reaped with spinners such as Ashwin, Jakati , Randiv and Raina. It is also a fact that the captain has shown faith in the three spinners in home conditions all the time and has used Bollinger as a surprise weapon and used him sparingly in the field restriction period.

Last time when these 2 teams met, it was Murali Vijay who took the attack to cleaners and Chennai scored close to 230 runs in their innings. But while chasing RR was helped by Watson and co to get closer to the target but ultimately lost it by a small margin. The match today will be a battle of wits and whoever can acclimatize to the heat and take tactical decisions will prevail.

Chennai ku Whistle podu! Common Midas Dhoni, let the winning run continue!

Tags: Bottom Heavy, Chennai Super Kings, CSK, Spin Heavy, Swashbuckling, Tigers, Top Heavy, Whistle Podu