We go back to Dubai for the second part of the double header in the Indian Premier League on Sunday when the Kings XI Punjab take on the Chennai Super Kings in a battle of the bottom two teams in the competition.
Three teams will end the weekend on six points while the losers of this match will remain on just two and will be playing catch up which is a position nobody wants to be in this early in the tournament.
Kings XI Punjab
The Kings XI Punjab go into this match with three defeats from four so far this season and while we all know they should have won their opening game, the fact they didn’t get over the line is beginning to look costly. In their last two matches their bowling attack has been destroyed and history will tell us that we are not too far away from the Kings XI changing their plans regularly and beginning to lose the plot. You get the feeling that it is imperative that they win this match.
The big problem that the Punjab have is their death bowling. To say it has been terrible so far would be doing terrible an injustice. It has been pathetic so KL Rahul and the backroom staff either need to find another option in terms of personnel or he needs to utilise the options that he has a lot better than he has done. Things like bowling a filthy spinner to the likes of Kieron Pollard in the last over of an innings is a strategy that isn’t going to have much joy either in the short term or the long term.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings looked like they were ready to rumble when they knocked off the defending champions Mumbai Indians in their opening match of the tournament but they left the races soon after and are yet to return. It is never a good thing when you have a combination of the bowlers not delivering the goods and the batsmen struggling and sooner or later some big decisions are going to have to be made.
The first of those is surely Imran Tahir has to come into the side. The Chennai spinners aren’t getting the job done either in terms of taking wickets or keeping the flow of runs down. Sam Curran could be the man to make way for the South African. The other thing they need to decide on pretty quickly is their best batting order because at the minute they are all over the place and that never bodes well. They are an experienced bunch though so you’d back them to get it right eventually but they need to hope it isn’t too late by the time they do.
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Key Men
Sheldon Cottrell has been picked in this Kings XI Punjab side for his ability to swing the new ball and keep things tight at the death. He is performing the first role well enough but the second part has been a complete mess. They will need him to come good at the death here.
Often when the Chennai Super Kings go well it is Shane Watson who sets the tone at the top of the innings. He just hasn’t got going in any way shape or form to date and that needs to change fast to ease the pressure on the middle order.
Betting
I’ve been burned on the Chennai Super Kings in this tournament already but I think they can get back on track here. I think they will have seen enough with this team and will make the required changes to ensure they are much more effective here and if they do that I expect natural improvement from them. The other reason I like the Super Kings is they are never going to be out of the game with the awful Kings XI death bowling. If Chennai bat first they could propel themselves to an unmanageable total and if they are chasing anything can be reached at the end. This should be the day the Super Kings join the party once against.
I’ve mentioned a few times in this preview that the Kings XI are dreadful at the end of the innings so there could be a bit of mileage in backing Ravindra Jadeja to continue his batting exploits. He comes into this match off the back of 50 in the previous game and we’re at that stage of the tournament in Dubai where we are moving towards the edges of the square to bring short boundaries into play and things. That might get Jadeja up the order as a leftie to take advantage of that. He was hitting the ball well against the Sunrisers in the last game and if you are scoring well against them you can certainly do it against this attack. At 20/1 it might reward backing Jadeja to tuck into the buffet.
Tips
WON – Back Chennai Super Kings to beat Kings XI Punjab for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with 888sport
Back them here:
Back R.Jadeja Top Chennai Super Kings Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Bet365
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