Indian T20 League 2024

CHE vs KOL, 22nd Match

Preview

After a long gap of almost two weeks, Chennai will set their feet at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the arena, where they registered their only two wins this season. Their rivals Kolkata, powered by the mentorship of Gautam Gambhir will confront their fourth opponent at their home after remaining unbeaten in this tournament. The trophy defenders have lost their last two matches in Vishakapatnam and Hyderabad respectively. 

CHE are way ahead by an 18:10 margin against KOL in head-to-head stats. In Chepauk, the record stands as 7:3. So Dhoni and Co. clearly have an upper hand when it comes to playing against the Knights. 

Their bowler at prime, Mustafizur Rahman’s return from the United States is under the cloud and hence their bowling coach Eric Simmons hasn’t promised his availability for tomorrow. Regarding Prathrana’s absence in the last match, the coach said there is not much concern and it’s just that the management is being conservative.

Kolkata has firepower as Sunil Narine in the top order, Russell in the middle and Rinku drives the opponent through hell in the death overs. The Sri Lankan duo of Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana has effectively done their job of keeping the big hitter under check, combiningly conceding only 35 runs off 33 deliveries but hasn’t been able to take his wicket. If Pathirana makes it to the Playing XI, he’d be instrumental at the backend of the innings. 

The Kolkata side led by Shreyas Iyer would aim to continue their unbeaten streak by winning against the defending champions in the 22nd match of the Indian T20 League 2024. Sunil Narine playing his prevalent role as the opener proved as Kolkata’s strength in the early stages of this season. The management now hopes that Caribbean hunts down Dhoni’s Chennai as well in this match.

Although the surface at Chepauk has been suitable for the slow bowlers but that’s not how it has behaved in this season. A total exceeding 170 has been chased down comfortably in the first game followed by defending 206 runs in the second game. Thus, the visitors won’t be complaining even if the pitch is prepared for the spinners. Rachin Ravindra is presently showing signs of difficulty against balls that are moving outside off and that is a weakness Kolkata would like to exploit against the Chennai opener.

Shreyas Iyer and co would look forward to holding their slot with a fourth consecutive win, whereas the Lions aim for a happy return to their den. 

Match Details

Match: CHE vs KOL, 22nd Match, IND T20 League 2024

Date: Monday, April 8, 2024

Time: 07:30 PM

Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Pitch and Weather Report

The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai has always been known for sluggish wickets and has backed the teams with better spin attacks. This is expected to be a high-scoring encounter as both sides possess immense firepower. 

The weather in Chennai will be mostly warm and moist with maximum and minimum temperatures ranging from 36 to 28 degrees Celsius. 

CHE vs KOL Squads

CHE: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Daryl Mitchell, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, Mukesh Choudhary, Shardul Thakur, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Sameer Rizvi, Devon Conway, Mustafizur Rahman, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, RS Hangargekar, Matheesha Pathirana, Nishant Sindhu, Aravelly Avanish

KOL: Philip Salt (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Suyash Sharma, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Dushmantha Chameera, Srikar Bharat, Nitish Rana, Chetan Sakariya, Sherfane Rutherford, Sakib Hussain, Allah Ghazanfar

CHE vs KOL Probable Playing XIs

CHE: Rachin Ravindra, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi/Mitchell Santner, MS Dhoni, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana

KOL: Sunil Narine, Phil Salt, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy

Match Prediction

Though Chennai won their last two matches at the Chepauk, Kolkata is in sublime form and has won at three different stadiums so far. The surface at Chepauk is slightly wet and is expected to assist the spinners. This would favour Kolkata more as they specialise in spin bowling. The only concern for the visitors is their batters have mostly played on flat pitches this season and getting used to this scenario is tough. Kolkata’s recent form favours them to win this match and remain at the top of the Indian T20 League table.

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