The Indian Premier League heads back to the home of the champions on Wednesday as the Chennai Super Kings continue their IPL 2024 season when the winners of last term welcome the Punjab Kings to Chepauk.
The Super Kings are well on course to extend their title defence into the playoffs in this campaign while the Kings are one of those teams who have run out of room for error if they are going to launch their own playoff campaign.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings are in exactly the position they want to be in with five matches to play. They know that three wins will get them into the finals, although their run rate is so good that they could yet get in with two wins, but they will be eyeing up four and five wins to make sure they give themselves a couple of goes at getting to the final as they bid to make a successful defence of their title. Their home form is very much on their side here.
Chennai enjoyed a good win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last match which was needed because they lost a double header against Lucknow Super Giants. Their bowlers came to the party in that win over Hyderabad, as they were always going to need to in order to beat such a powerful side. It helps that they were at home in that match. Their bowling is so much better on home soil than away from home so they’ll be keen to maximise this outing.
Punjab Kings
The Punjab Kings are in the position where they are drinking in the last chance saloon. If they are going to win this tournament they have to win out from here. That is a huge ask, especially as they are heading to one of the fortresses in the Indian Premier League here but if they can win this game it will give them plenty of confidence for what is to come. The good news for the Kings is that despite them only having three wins from nine matches, their run rate hasn’t been massively damaged so if they can get on a run they can still make it through.
The Kings ended a run of four straight defeats in emphatic style in their last match when they chased down 262 with time to spare in what was a ridiculous run chase. They are going to be concerned with their bowling though. It is going around the park a little too much for comfort, although at least they now know that their batting is capable of anything and that might free the bowlers up to perform to the best of their ability.
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Key Players
Ruturaj Gaikwad is showing all of his quality in this tournament at the minute. He clearly hasn’t been affected by the captaincy and goes into this match as the second highest scorer in the competition. Another big knock here would be welcome.
Jonny Bairstow finally came to the party in this tournament in the last match for the Punjab Kings and if they are going to continue to launch some sort of winning run then the opening batter could do with getting his side off to a fast start here.
Betting
We have seen some surprisingly high scores in Chennai this season and given the way that the Punjab Kings are going at the minute I would be surprised if this isn’t another game with them. Chennai are showing much more intent and power with the bat this term, which might be why the pitches have played better than in previous campaigns on this ground, and they should have the bowling attack to feast on here.
Punjab Kings have plenty of big hitters in their ranks, as we saw in their last match, so I think we are going to be treated to a high scoring game. Thankfully bookmakers haven’t caught up with the higher scoring games at this ground yet and are offering up a sixes line of just 15.5. When you consider that Punjab hit 24 of them in their last match that line is clearly on the low side. Chennai have hit 10 and eight sixes in their last two matches here and if they are in that ball park again the Kings should make up the difference.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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