Venue: Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Time: 3:30 PM IST
Average score at venue: 164
Win percentage while batting first: 45.45%
Pitch Conditions:
- With the odd ball skidding, bouncing and surprising the batsmen, it is generally going to be a batting-friendly wicket at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday afternoon in the contest between CSK and KKR.
- Fast bowlers will enjoy some assistance from the pitch since there is fresh grass present on the surface in the Abu Dhabi stadium. Their wicket-share percentage at this venue is 69.44% compared to 30.56% for the spin bowlers.
Weather prediction:
It will be a hot Sunday afternoon for players from the teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during their daytime clash, which will witness temperature as high as 37°C at the time of the start of the contest, dropping down to around 34°C. The humidity level will linger around 50%.
Head-to-head performance:
Matches played: 24
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won: 15
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won: 8
Tied: –
Top 3 players from Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis
Top 3 players from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson
Top picks for H2H/WTA contest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar
Top 5 players from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Rahul Tripathi, M Prasidh Krishna
Q&A:
Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
It is a contest between two heavily lopsided teams in Indian T20 2021. While Chennai Super Kings are at the top of the points table, Kolkata Knight Riders have just started making their way back among top teams, having recently defeated the defending champions Mumbai Indians in a comprehensive manner. The presence of bowlers such as Josh Hazlewood, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy and even M Prasidh Krishna make the contest enticing. The batsmen from both ends will face a stern challenge in terms of getting runs, thus, it will still be wise to add more to the batting strength since scoreboard pressure is what helps in victories and both the teams will want to make most of the opportunity of batting first — whoever gets to do so.
From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
If there is one team which has made a strong statement since the beginning of the second leg of Indian T20 2021 in the UAE, it has to be Kolkata Knight Riders. The two-time Indian T20 winners have defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians — both their opponents were in the top four when these contests were played — to stage a remarkable comeback after a meek campaign in India in the first leg. KKR’s victory by 7 wickets against Mumbai Indians also helped them break into the top four, thus pushing down the defending champions to the fifth position. But it will still be an uphill task for Kolkata Knight Riders to maintain their standing and competition against the teams placed over them. Their first such test will be on Sunday afternoon against Chennai Super Kings, who are indeed a better team across all departments given that all of the CSK batsmen have been among runs, their bowlers are taking wickets and the team is performing as a well-oiled unit.
MORE INFORMATION:
Players’ form: Kolkata Knight Riders opening batsman Venkatesh Iyer is the one to watch out for. The left-handed opening batsman has raked up scores of 41 not out and 53 against RCB and MI in his last two matches, promising KKR a strong start at the top irrespective whether they bat first or second. Rahul Tripathi has also shown great form with his splendid 74 against Mumbai Indians. The same can be said for young Chennai Super Kings opening batsman Gaikwad, who has flourished in the company of seasoned campaigner and former South Africa captain du Plessis. Ferguson bowled a terrific spell against Mumbai Indians in the previous match, and for CSK, the likes of Chahar and Bravo were terrific too.
Changes in squad (if any): YES
LIKELY XIs:
Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
FANTASY XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer (c), Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo/Lockie Ferguson, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakaravarthy (vc), Prasidh Krishna.
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Chennai Super Kings wary of resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders
MS Dhoni’s rampant Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be wary of the resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) led by England captain Eoin Morgan, when the two teams clash in the Match No 38 of the ongoing Indian T20 2021 tournament second leg in the UAE.
Kolkata Knight Riders crushed Mumbai Indians, the defending champions of Indian T20 this year, by 7 wickets in a one-sided contest a few nights ago to break into the top four of the Indian T20 2021 points table. KKR are currently placed 4th with 8 points in 9 matches, winning 4 games while losing 5.
Out of these 4 victories, 2 have come in the last as many matches since KKR had entered the second leg of Indian T20 2021 after a disappointing run of performances in India. The team looked out of sorts, the batting was misfiring and the bowlers were generally struggling as KKR lost 5 matches out of 7 they played in India.
But on the back of some impressive batting by young batsmen such as Iyer, Gill and Tripathi, powered by impressive bowling performances by Krishna, Chakravarthy and Ferguson, Kolkata Knight Riders have been able to make a strong return in the race for Indian T20 2021 knockouts.
But KKR’s resurgence will face a stern challenge against the rampant Chennai Super Kings, who are sitting deservingly at the top of the Indian T20 2021 points table. Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings have recorded victories in 7 matches out of 9 they have played so far, have 14 points in their kitty which is same to that of Delhi Capitals but all that also gives CSK the best Net Run Rate (NRR) of 1.185 in the competition.
While Kolkata have just started making the right moves, it is Chennai Super Kings who have been mastering all of that since the start of Indian T20 this year. Chennai has not only shown form with both bat and a ball — inspired by a change in approach to be aggressive and full of intent — but they have also shown the ability to turn around matches on their head, winning games from improbable situations — something which is their trademark style.
Almost all of the CSK batsmen are in form. The opening pair of Gaikwad and du Plessis has been piling up a lot of runs, the middle order consisting Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali and Suresh Raina has been garnering required runs and Dhoni too has spent some quality time in the middle, which will help him in the upcoming matches. CSK bowlers have been on the mark, with Bravo and Chahar getting wickets in heaps whereas the likes of Hazlewood and Ravindra Jadeja doing the job of containment.
KKR will bank upon the recent form to challenge the authority of the best team in Indian T20 so far, which makes this contest an exciting one to watch. But for the starters, Chennai Super Kings will be expected to continue with their juggernaut and thwart any challenge which KKR throw in their way.
