The record-breaking Punjab Kings will be hoping for wins against CSK and Chennai next: Fresh off chasing 262 in Kolkata, PBKS will look to improve on their strong recent head-to-head record against CSK.
The record-breaking Punjab Kings; Match details
The record-breaking Punjab Kings: Chennai Super Kings (3rd) vs Punjab Kings (8th)
Chennai, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)
The big picture (The record-breaking Punjab Kings)- Gaikwad’s new gear
Home comfort familiarity, close circle and minimum travel make the difference in a busy IPL schedule.
CSK will play their third consecutive game in Chennai on Wednesday until their last home game on May 12 before they hit the road again. By this time, their stronghold was breached by the Lucknow Super Giants. But recently they bowed down to the powerful batsmen of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Next up are the Punjab Kings, flown in from Kolkata in pursuit of the T20 world record.
CSK, with their home crowd backing them, will see this opportunity to tick a few boxes: they haven’t lost to PBKS since April 2021 (including a home game in 2023) and have the worst record of hitting sixes in the Powerplay. They will also bid farewell to the league’s highest wicket-taker (prior to the LSG vs MI game) Mustafizur Rahman, who shared the top spot with Jasprit Bumrah.
What they have got in recent games is the form of Ruturaj Gaikwad. The new CSK skipper was scoring below 119 in his first four games but his scoring has entered a new gear in the last three weeks, taking his strike rate to 159.55 in his last five games. He opened with a 40-ball 69 against MI after going to no. 3 in short and now comes into the game with two huge knocks on the back of his 180 in two games: 108* off 60 balls against LSG and 98 off 54 balls against SRH. His half-centuries off 28 and 27 balls respectively also show that he prefers to kick straight instead of setting the base first and then launching.
What stands out is that his game hasn’t changed while changing gears. He relies more on fours than sixes, he chooses his attacking shots carefully and his control percentage in the powerplay this IPL stands at 85.40%, the best after 46 games this season.
These scores and scoring rates are better for CSK as every time Gaikwad hits a fifty, their chances of winning the game become 73.68%, worse than Shubman Gill’s 78.26% for Gujarat Titans and Suryakumar Yadav’s 73.91% for MI.
CSK have scored 200 runs batting first in two of their last three matches but may need more against relegated opponents. PBKS’ top order finally stood up in Kolkata, meaning only the Shashutas (Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma) didn’t get their runs.
The record-breaking Punjab Kings will be hoping for wins against CSK and Chennai next
Jonny Bairstow and Pravsimran Singh’s return to form may be a bit late, but another cracking start from them will help the PBKS bowling unit, which has conceded 200 or more just once in IPL 2024.
Form Guide
Chennai Super Kings WLLWW (Last Five Matches, Most Recent First)
Punjab Kings WLLLL
Team news and impact player strategy
The record-breaking Punjab Kings; Chennai Super Kings
This will be Mustafizur’s last match. He will travel to the country for Bangladesh’s T20I against Zimbabwe from May 3. Ajinkya Rahane as an impact bowler or Shivam Dube as an impact player are unlikely to make any changes to the XI or XII.
Probable XI 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Shivam Dubey, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Tushar Deshpande, 101 Jan Mustaful.
The record-breaking Punjab Kings; Punjab Kings
Shikhar Dhawan might be fit for this game, but PBKS will take the final call on him on match day. His availability has them scratching their heads as it will force them to drop an Indian batsman who has not played for three weeks and had earlier scored just 125 runs at the top.
The record-breaking Punjab Kings; Probable XI: 1 Pravsimran Singh, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Riley Rosso, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), 5 Sam Curran (captain), 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Harpreet Singh.
In the Spotlight – Shivam Dubey and Riley Rosso
In his third IPL game this season, Riley Roseau showed flashes of his power as he hit two sixes off Andre Russell’s 16-ball 26 that could have done the job in Kolkata. But at number 3, Bairstow and Pavsimran had an opening pair that scored 225 runs against KKR and the middle and lower order managed to put up equally impressive numbers. After an underwhelming outing in the PSL, and having just been left out of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad, Rosso will be looking to score some more runs.
The record-breaking Punjab Kings; Pitch and terms
Chepak’s last four games have all been in favor of batting, with scores regularly breaching the now unassailable 200 mark with both sides batting first and chasing two match-winning targets. Dew, however, was a regular visitor there, including on Tuesday nights, which could still support first bowling.
A heat alert is currently in place in Chennai where the temperature is expected to touch 37 degrees Celsius with a heavy dose of humidity.