MATCH PREVIEW
Follow UsYou don’t need to hype up a tournament like the Indian Premier League, especially if it’s starting with Chennai Super Kings taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The two franchises featuring two of the most followed cricketers — that’s enough advertisement. But if that’s still not enough for you, guess what, CSK will be led by Ruturaj Gaikwad and not MS Dhoni. The man with five IPL titles has handed over the captaincy to Gaikwad on the eve of the IPL 2024 opener.
Home advantage will be a big factor in this encounter and it will give Gaikwad some leeway. The defending champions, Chennai, have a win percentage of 70% at Chepauk and have a superb record against RCB. Meanwhile, Bengaluru have struggled at this venue in the past and the likes of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell will have their task cut out against Ravindra Jadeja and Co.
CSK vs RCB Head-to-Head
Overall - Games 31 | CSK 20 | RCB 10 | NR 1
H2H at Chepauk - Games 8 | CSK 7 | RCB 1
Venue Details
The Chepauk felt a bit different at the start of IPL 2023, with the first four games producing six 170-plus totals, with four of those being 200-plus. However, in the next five matches, there were only two 170-plus totals. So, it will be interesting to see how the surface behaves this time around.
In IPL 2023, the fast bowlers had a better average (24.4) and strike rate (17.1) than spinners (27.8 and 21.6) but the tweakers were far more economical (7.7 vs 8.6). The RCB batters have always struggled against CSK spinners at Chepauk, so don’t be surprised if the surface turns out to be on the slower side.
Weather Forecast
There was a bit of drizzle in Chennai on Thursday but the sky is expected to be clear on match day, with the temperature hovering around 30 degree celsius. Meanwhile, the humidity level will be around 75 percent.
Things to watch out for
Jadeja vs RCB batters
At least six of Bengaluru’s top-seven batters are right-handers and that will make things easier for Jadeja. In IPL 2023, the left-arm spinner operated at an average of 16.9 and an economy rate of 6.7 against right-handers, compared to 28.5 and 8.6, respectively, against left-handed batters. He has impressive numbers against almost every RCB batter and will be the biggest threat on the Chepauk surface.
Maxwell has terrible numbers against Jadeja in the IPL, averaging just 11.7 in 11 innings. Jadeja has dismissed him six times, every time in a similar fashion. Jadeja’s game plan to Maxwell has been simple — he has targeted the stumps (look at the aforementioned image) and this has given him all of his success against the right-hander in the IPL.
Kohli has an average of 46.7 against Jadeja but a strike rate of 106.9 is not something to brag about. Du Plessis and Patidar haven’t faced much of Jadeja, while the only time Cameron Green came face to face against him last season, the left-arm spinner got him out. Dinesh Karthik (strike rate 150.7) has good numbers against him but even his game against spin has gone down in recent years.
With RCB being so right-hand dominated, someone like Rachin Ravindra could also make an impact.
Green’s batting position
RCB traded Green from Mumbai Indians for INR 17.5 crore before the auction, compromising on the bowling front. But that’s not it, Bengaluru will now have to figure out Green’s batting position. In IPL 2023, the Australian all-rounder slammed 419 runs @ 52.38 and a strike rate of 162.4 batting at No.3. Whenever he batted out of that position, Green could only score 33 runs across six innings. Now, how do RCB give him his preferred slot?
Patidar missed the last IPL but was brilliant at No.3 in the 2022 edition, scoring 312 runs in six innings @ 62.4 and an SR of 153.7. There’s also Maxwell who enjoys batting at No.4. So it will be interesting to see how du Plessis and the RCB management get the best out of Green. And for that to happen, one of Patidar or Maxwell will have to drop one spot lower.
Squads
CSK - MS Dhoni (wk), Aravelly Avanish (wk), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nishant Sindhu, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Mustafizur Rahman, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Shardul Thakur, Maheesh Theekshana, Sameer Rizvi
RCB - Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan
Probable XIs
CSK - Rachin Ravindra*, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Daryl Mitchell*, Sameer Rizvi (IP), Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana*, Mustafizur Rahman (IP)*
RCB - Faf du Plessis* (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (IP), Glenn Maxwell*, Cameron Green*, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Dagar, Alzarri Joseph/Reece Topley*, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Karn Sharma (IP)
*overseas player
Telecast and Streaming Details
The match will be live on Star Sports Network and live-streamed on Jio Cinema. The game will start at 8 PM, with the toss happening at 7:30 PM.
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