Episode 1: SunRisers Hyderabad v/s Chennai Super Kings • The Crucial Win

Eleven days after their last clash, Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad will meet again in Dubai on Tuesday. The last time the two teams met, Sunrisers won by seven runs but the margin of victory doesn’t reflect the fact it outplayed the Super Kings convincingly. Both teams come into this encounter on the back of defeats in their respective last games and can’t afford any further slip-up. The teams have played seven matches and Sunrisers have three wins compared to the Super Kings’ two.

On Sunday, Sunrisers failed to close out the match against Rajasthan Royals after having the latter under the mat defending 158. While the team’s batting unit has been amongst the runs, the bowling unit is hurting with the loss of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. T Natarajan and Rashid Khan have stepped up to the occasion but need support from other bowlers.

For CSK, the road to playoffs has narrowed significantly after five losses thanks largely to its batsmen who have struggled. Unless they, especially the middle order, find a way to break the shackles and force the scoring rate in the middle overs, this could be the first year the team fails to qualify for the playoffs. With its batting largely sorted, the team would just want more consistency from Jonny Bairstow. However, considering CSK’s struggles, Rashid will once again hold the key like he did the last time around (0/12) when the two sides met. CSK needs to somehow figure out who is going to provide the impetus to the middle order. One option is to try one of Sam Curran or Ravindra Jadeja to play at the number four spot and give them the freedom to go after the bowlers. Head-to-head: CSK 9; SRH 4. Squads

Chennai Super Kings: Murali Vijay, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Kedar Jadhav, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Lungi Ngidi, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, R. Sai Kishore, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Captain), Jonny Bairstow (Wicketkeeper), Kane Williamson, Y Prithvi Raj, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jason Holder, Fabian Allen, Vijay Shankar, Sanjay Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha (Wicketkeeper), Shreevats Goswami (Wicketkeeper), Bavanaka Sandeep, Basil Thampi, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma.

Match No 29

Venue: Dubai International Stadium

Time: 7.30 pm