What

Chennai Super Kings will look to end their brief losing streak when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 41 of VIVO IPL 2019. The defending champions were parked at the top of the table for quite some time but have slipped to second place now. Sunrisers Hyderabad had a losing streak of their own, which they arrested in the previous meeting against CSK. Most recently, the Sunrisers defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders; they now have five wins from nine matches and complete the top four.

The Super Kings now play three consecutive matches at home, and have a very good opportunity to finish the league stage at the top of the table. The equation is exactly the opposite for the Sunrisers, who play only one home match in their remaining five.

The Super Kings’ management will be concerned with the lack of runs from Shane Watson; the Australian has only managed 147 runs in ten hits this season – 44 of those in one knock against the Delhi Capitals. The CSK management might not want to axe a player who won them the final last season, but if ever they’re considering changes, Murali Vijay or Sam Billings are options available for them to explore. The other possible change one can expect from CSK is to bring back Harbhajan Singh; the experienced off-spinner has astonishing numbers at home this season: 3 matches, 7 wickets, average of 7.43 and economy of 4.33.

The Sunrisers might not tinker too much with their batting line-up, though they might consider giving themselves another spin option in the form of Abhishek Sharma.

When

23 April 2019, 8pm IST

Where

MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Previous Match XIs:                   

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma.

Protagonists

That MS Dhoni is CSK’s top run-getter by some distance – despite batting at number five or six – reveals two things; (a) that he has been sensational with the bat, and (b) the batsmen batting above him haven’t clicked. CSK would love for their captain to carry his form through the season, but the management would also want the top-order to fire. Suresh Raina is an important cog in the wheel for CSK; the left-hander, often referred to as one of the greats of the competition, needs a big score under his belt quickly.

Sunrisers’ batting this season has pretty much begun and ended with David Warner and Jonny Bairstow; Warner is the current Orange Cap holder, while Bairstow is second on the list. That Warner and Bairstow are the only two Sunrisers batsmen to score 50-plus scores illustrates how good they’ve been and how poor the rest of the batting line-up has been. Bairstow, who has remained unbeaten on 61 and 81 in his last two knocks, is expected to part ways with the Sunrisers after this match; he will want to sign off with another match-winning knock.

The spotlight will be on the spinners on both sides; the performances of Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh (all CSK), and Rashid Khan (SRH) will have a huge bearing on the outcome of the match.

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 11, Chennai Super Kings – 8, Sunrisers Hyderabad - 3

Trivia

Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad have the two-most economical spin bowling attacks in VIVO IPL 2019; the overall economy rate of CSK’s spinners this season is 6.33 and the corresponding number for SRH is 6.62.

The Chennai Super Kings are the only team with a 100% win record at home this season; CSK have played 4, won 4.

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s record in Chennai: Played – 2, Won – 0, Lost – 2

Sunrisers Hyderabad (9.07 runs per over) have the best scoring rate in the Powerplay period, while the Chennai Super Kings (6.20) have the poorest scoring rate in that period.