(Cricket news) Punjab Kings, who have managed just three victories out of the 7 matches they have played are hurtling towards an awkwardly familiar territory of having to treat every remaining game as a must-win in order to secure their first playoffs berth in eight editions. On the other hand for CSK every match from now on is a do or die match if they are to make the playoff berth.
PBKS season has been plagued with inconsistency with only Liam Livingstone scoring the bulk of runs (226 runs, 3 half-centuries), with the likes of Johnny Bairstow and Shah Rukh Khan failing quite badly in this year's edition. The major talking point has been the form of Johnny Bairstow who has just managed to score 41 runs, whereas his replacement Bhanuka Rajapaska was hammering the ball out of the park for fun before the Englishman arrived. Touted as PBKS' most apparent weak link, their bowling department has fared reasonably well in this years tournament led by veteran Kagiso Rabada and uncapped bowler Arshdeep Singh churning out economical spells even though he's not got enough wickets to show for it. Punjab's spinners have the least impressive economy rate in IPL 2022 of 8.65, a weakness that the PBKS management need to figure out as spinners have been integral in this season’s IPL.
CSK will be high on confidence after a MS Dhoni masterclass but still have a long way to go in the tournament, if they are to make the playoffs. The batting for CSK off late has been better as Ruturaj Gaikwad and Robin Uthappa have given them decent enough starts. Shivam Dube has been the only bright spot throughout the tournament as he has conjured up 236 runs this season and is their highest run getter also. CSK's have also been better in the power play bowling in the last three games, not conceding more than 42 runs and taking a total of nine wickets in that phase. Rookie pacer Mukesh Choudhary has a lot to do with that improvement having been backed despite an off-color start to the season, and lately has come good with the new ball. Mahesh Theekshana has been chipping in consistently with important wickets but CSK's major worry would be the form of their captain Ravindra Jadeja, who has failed to perform with bat as well as ball.
Pitch and weather report: The Wankhede pitch initially saw some good seam movement as batters found it difficult to get settled in but the last two matches have seen massive targets being posted as that is likely to continue. The temperature is going to hover around 32 degrees with no chance of rain as dew will play a factor in the second innings
Interesting facts:
- PBKS pace bowlers have combined to take only 18 wickets so far in IPL 2022
- CSK's top-three have a collective aggregate to just 436 runs so far in the season
- Shikhar Dhawan averages nearly 42 after 27 innings against CSK,
- Shikhar needs 59 more to bring up a 1000 IPL runs against CSK
- Dhoni has scored five fifties and an overall 630 runs at an average of 52.5 against the PBKS
- Dwaine Pretorius has got Liam Livingstone out 4 times and has conceded only 87 runs
- Dwayne Bravo needs 9 runs to get to 1000 in the IPL.
Also read: RCB aim to stop Jos Buttler juggernaut against Rajasthan, Kohli's form in focus too
Probable XI for PBKS:
1 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Jonny Bairstow/Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Nathan Ellis/Odean Smith, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Arshdeep Singh
Probable XI for CSK:
1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Robin Uthappa, 3 Ambati Rayudu, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja (capt), 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Dwaine Pretorius, 10 Maheesh Theekshana, 11 Mukesh Choudhary
