IPL: Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders Preview

We take a look at Tuesday’s IPL clash which will see the Chennai Super Kings go head to head with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the M. A. Chidambaram

Both the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders head into Tuesday’s IPL fixture in confident mood after wins against the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively.

With each team having dispatched one of the pre-tournament favourites over the weekend, Tuesday’s showdown at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium should be an absolute cracker.

CSK vs KKR | Tuesday 10 April | M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai | 16:30

To Win Match
Chennai Super Kings 82/100
Tie 35/1
Kolkata Knight Riders 21/20

Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings returned to the IPL with a bang as they ran out one-wicket winners with a ball to spare against the 2017 tournament winners, the Mumbai Indians. Dwayne Bravo was the hero of the day for CSK as the West Indian underpinned his status as the format’s premier seam all-rounder with a fantastic display.

Firstly, his death bowling was nothing short of sublime, conceding just 11 runs from his final three overs (after going for 14 in his first) before bludgeoning a 30-ball 68 to take his team over the line. While Bravo lit the tie up, there is cause for concern with a number of stars failing to deliver.

Mark Wood simply couldn’t find his lengths at the death with the Pandya brothers taking full advantage. The Englishman would go on to concede 36-runs in his final two overs. Imran Tahir also struggled, although he only bowled two overs. The veteran South African had his figures ruined by a poor start to the 11th over as he too missed his lengths, conceding 12 with his first three balls. Needless to say it’s moments like these that can take a T20 game away from you, much improvement is needed.

Looking ahead, more will be required from the team as a whole. Wood and Tahir are likely to crack the nod again, however, they need to produce or risk facing an extended period out of the side. On the batting front, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav will all need to convert any starts they get going forward, especially against an explosive KKR batting line-up.

Kolkata Knight Riders
The Knight Riders were brilliant in their dismantling of the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the weekend. Electing to field first, Dinesh Karthik’s bowlers did relatively well to keep Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers under control.

At the end of it, they restricted arguably the most powerful batting line-up in the competition to just 176. Although Vinay Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav were expensive, Piyush Chawla, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Mitchell Johnson all returned excellent economy rates as RCB limped to a pretty underwhelming total.

Narine will be looking for a repeat performance with the bat against an admittedly stronger CSK bowling attack. The West Indian clubbed a 19-ball 50 at the top of the order before Karthik and Nitish Rana played measured innings’ to steer the team home.

Neither Lynn nor Russell really got going with the bat in the first match of the season. There’s no doubt the two will be itching to get stuck into some of the more unsettled elements of the CSK attack.

Verdict: Kolkata Knight Riders 21/20
I love the look and balance of this KKR outfit. A strong Indian core is complemented brilliantly by the likes of Narine, Lynn, Johnson and Russell. The men in purple should be too strong here and should be backed at 21/20.

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