In the 56th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL), MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings will face R Ashwin-led Kings XI Punjab in a do-or-die clash for KXIP at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune, on Sunday.
With the race for the play-offs becoming interesting, Punjab will have to register a win with a huge margin as their net run-rate reads a poor -0.490.
The Ravichandran Ashwin-led side kicked-off the 2018 season on a decent note, winning five of their first six games but faltered in the business end of the league.
Barring opener KL Rahul, who has 652 runs from 13 innings, Punjab have failed to click as a unit.
Chris Gayle, the self-proclaimed ‘Universe Boss’, came out with some impressive knocks in the first half of the season but failed to maintain his form.
Aaron Finch, Karun Nair, Marcus Stonis, Mayank Agarwal and Yuvraj Singh have failed to score so far.
In the bowling department, Andrew Tye has single-handedly led the pace attack with 24 wickets from 13 games and is currently the leading wicket-taker in the league.
Teenaged Afghan spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman (14 wickets) has also been impressive while pacer Ankit Rajpoot (eight wickets), off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (six wickets) and medium-pacer Mohit Sharma (six wickets) need rise to the occasion against Chennai.
On the other hand, having already qualified for the play-offs, Chennai will be eager to finish the league stage at the top spot.
The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side were handed a 34-run defeat by Delhi Daredevils in their last game on Friday.
KXIP vs CSK head to head:
Chennai Super Kings have won 10 games in the 17 outings against Kings XI Punjab.
Chennai have won five out of their six outings at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
Ahead of the clash, here is everything you need to know:
Date: Sunday, 20 May 2018.
Venue: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
Telecast: Star Network.
Time: 8 pm IST.
Live streaming: Hotstar.
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings (From): Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Sam Billings, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, N Jagadeesan, David Willey, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi
Kings XI Punjab (From): Lokesh Rahul(w), Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Manoj Tiwary, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Ankit Rajpoot, Karun Nair, David Miller, Mayank Agarwal, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar
-With IANS inputs.