Tomorrow Punjab Kings will take on CSK: Dhoni desperate to return to victory

 

Tomorrow Punjab Kings will take on CSK: Dhoni desperate to return to victory

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings will have to improve their bowling in the face of the Punjab Kings' strong batting order on Friday to return to the winning path in the IPL. Chennai defeated Delhi Capitals by seven wickets in the first match while Punjab Kings defeated Rajasthan Royals by four runs.

Considering the role of dew at the Wankhede Stadium, the team that wins the toss will want to bowl first. Chennai scored 188 for seven in the first match here, in which Suresh Raina contributed 54, Moeen Ali 36 and Sam Curren contributed 34 runs. Openers Rituraj Gaikwad, Faf Duplesey and Dhoni could not walk in that match, after that the Chennai bowlers could not save even a big score.

Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw easily won the match by sharing 138 runs for Delhi. Deepak Chahar, Sam Karan, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja and Moin Ali all scored runs. Now it will be hard on the skilled strategist Dhoni to get out of the shock of this defeat and motivate the team to perform well, they will have to lead from the front for this.

Punjab Kings, on the other hand, narrowly escaped defeat at the hands of the Royals despite scoring 221 for six in the first match. KL Rahul, who landed as an opener, scored 91 off 50 balls, while Chris Gayle contributed 40 from 28 balls and Deepak Hooda contributed 64 runs from 28 balls. The cause of worry for Punjab is not their batting but bowling.

Royals captain Sanju Samson scored single-handedly winning 119 off 63 balls in the first match but missed out on four runs. Young Arshdeep Singh did not let him score 13 runs in the last over and gave the team the victory. Mohammed Shami also took two wickets for 33 runs, but Jhay Richardson and Riley Meredith proved expensive. The team has spent a total of Rs 22 crore on both.

Both teams are as follows

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf Duplesey, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeeshan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Rituraj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Karan, R Sai Kishore, Moin Ali, K Gautham, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harishankar Reddy, Bhagnath Verma, C Hari Nishant.

Punjab Kings: Lokesh Rahul (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabhasimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshadip Singh, Ishan Porrell, Darshan Nalakande , Chris Jordan, David Malan, Jhay Richardson, Shah Rukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen and Saurabh Kumar.