Moving onto the second phase of the league, we will have SRH vs CSK to play match number 29 of the Indian T20 League in Dubai. Both teams have played seven matches each and Hyderabad are placed at the fifth position with six points while Chennai are second from the bottom with just four points.
SRH have usually looked to defend targets and will look to do the same in this match as well if they win the toss given the way CSK has been chasing this season. Chennai have been leaving it too late and expecting their lower-order batsmen to pull off miracles more often than not. CSK have lost their last 2 matches while chasing targets of 170 and 168, overall, they have chased in each match of IPL 2020 and have lost 5 of those matches.
Chennai have a superior record against Hyderabad, winning nine out of the total 13 matches. In the last five SRH vs CSK matches, Chennai have managed to win three games which included an all-important final from the 2018 edition.
KEY BATTLES
Manish Pandey vs Ambati Rayudu
Number three is more often than not the most important position in the batting line-up. The situation of the game dictates the way this player has to play and both these players are capable of changing their batting tempo when required.
Manish Pandey played a good knock in SRH’s previous match against Rajasthan and will look to back that up with another fifty.
Ambati Rayudu struggled to show intent in CSK’s previous match against RCB and was called out by many pundits as the player who virtually lost the game for his side. He’ll be looking to set the criticism aside and come back stronger in this match. He averages 45.50 against SRH that’s his best against any team in the competition. He just needs 49 more runs to reach 3500 Indian T20 League runs and he’ll look to get them in this match itself.
PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR
David Warner
David Warner just needs 19 more runs to become the first foreign player to get more than 5000 runs in this tournament. His average against CSK isn’t the best, in fact at 31.53 this is his worst against any current team. He’ll look to change this as soon as possible and will look to start that with this match.
Shane Watson
It’s clear that if Chennai wants to turn it around in the second phase of the tournament then they need Shane Watson to score consistently. Whenever he has done well the team has looked in much better shape and have seemed more competitive.
PREDICTED LINE-UPS
SRH: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow (WK) (C), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma
CSK: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Narayan Jagadeesan, MS Dhoni (WK) (C), Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma
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