A second win and a break in the losing streak beckons one of the teams as Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Match 18 of Dream11
Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday evening.
After making a winning start to their IPL 2020 campaign against Mumbai Indians (MI), CSK have lost three games in a row. While RR beat them by 16 runs, Delhi
Capitals (DC) registered a 44-run win against CSK before they went down against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 7 runs.
KXIP, on the other hand, overcame the Super Over-heartbreak against DC with a win in their second game against RCB. However, they lost their next two games
against Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians.
The biggest weakness of KXIP is their death bowling. Kings XI has already conceded 30 runs in the last over to DC, 30 in one crucial over to RR, and 29 against MI. There is no way that a team can continue to give away so many runs at the death and win consistently. Ideally, Kings XI would want to include Chris Jordan or Mujeeb ur Rehman in their lineup in place of Jimmy Neesham. We think that is an expected move. Can Kings XI continue to leave out Chris Gayle? Maybe they can because Mayank Aggarwal and Lokesh Rahul are batting so well at the top of the order.
Karun Nair and K Gowtham are two more players that are going to struggle to keep their places in the playing eleven. We expect Mandeep Singh and maybe Arshdeep Singh to make an entry into the playing eleven as well. Glenn Maxwell played one of the worst innings that he has probably ever played in the IPL. he was rusty and could not strike the ball but we think he should be persisted with. A man with his six-hitting ability can turn things around in the matter of a game.
It has been painful to watch CSK this season. It is a team of players that are past their best and trying to play T20 cricket like it was in the past. With the batting that CSK has, they are going to struggle chasing down any significant target. Shane Watson is out of form, MS Dhoni is not striking the ball as cleanly as could at his best, and even Ravindra Jadeja is struggling.Faf du Plessis and Ambati Rayadu seem to be the two batsmen that can help CSK get the needed runs. Maybe pushing Sam Curran up consistently is something that CSK can try as well.
The tactics for CSK have been too predictable in most of the matches. Teams are being able to plan against them way too easily. A bowling lineup of Deepak Chahar, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, and Piyush Chawal is not threatening in these conditions at all.
The fast bowlers do not have the pace to be able to win consistently whiler the spinners just have not found out the kind of form they need to be able to be effective.
Weather Conditions
The humidity levels in the atmosphere will be quite high, 60-70 percent, which means that the fast bowlers could get some purchase early on. The maximum temparature will be 37 degrees and the minimum will be 27 degrees.
Pitch Report
The pitch at the ground has been decent for batting but tends to slow down as the game progresses. The wicket in Dubai is two-paced with some early assistance for
the pacers. As the game goes on, the spinners will come into play. A score of 180+ should be a good one for team batting first. No team has won a match chasing on
this ground in IPL 2020.
Toss Prediction
Dew doesn't play a huge role here in the second innings and the wicket also gets slow towards the end making hitting a bit difficult. All seven games at Dubai International Stadium have been won by the team batting first. So, we expect the team winning the toss to bat first and put a total of at least 180 runs on the board.
Head-to-Head and Stats:
Head to head: Matches Played: 22
Chennai Super Kings: 13
Kings XI Punjab: 9
Approaching Milestones
Mohammad Shami needs 2 wickets to complete 50 IPL wickets.
KL Rahul needs 9 runs to complete 1500 IPL runs for KXIP.
Dwayne Bravo requires 17 runs and 3 wickets to complete 1500 runs and 150 wickets respectively in IPL.
MS Dhoni needs 1 catch to complete 100 IPL catches as a wicketkeeper.
Likely XIs:
Chennai Super Kings: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak
Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Piyush Chawla
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (capt & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan/ K Gowtham, Chris Jordan/ Mujeeb ur
Rahman, M Ashwin/ Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Sheldon Cottrell, Mohammed Shami
Players to Watch Out For:
Chennai Super Kings: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Shami
Match Odds:
Chennai Super Kings: 1.8
Kings XI Punjab: 1.95
SantaBanta's Winner Prediction: Kings XI Punjab
IPL 2020 Winner Live Odds:
Mumbai Indians - 4.5
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 5
Delhi Capitals - 5
Kolkata Knight Riders - 7.5
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 8.5
Rajasthan Royals - 10
Chennai Super Kings - 10
Kings XI Punjab - 15
Match Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
Time: 7.30 PM IST
TV: Star Sports Network.
Live Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar VIP
