Chennai Super Kings will take on Lucknow Super Giants in their second league match of IPL-15 at Brabourne Stadium today. These teams are coming after losing their opening matches. In such a situation, both would like to return to the track of victory.
Win the toss, win the match
Toss is playing a very important role in this season of IPL. Every team prefers to field after winning the toss. Both Chennai and Lucknow teams batted first at the Wankhede Stadium and lost the match. Things won't be any different at Brabourne Stadium either. Here also the team winning the toss would prefer to bowl first as dew can have a lot of effect during the second innings.
Ravindra Jadeja-led CSK and KL Rahul's LSG will have to recover from top-order failures in their opening encounter with the top-order batsmen deeply disappointed. When the Powerplay needed a quick start, both the teams lost wickets at regular intervals. The result was that batting first could not get a big score on the scoreboard. In the previous match against Kolkata Knight Riders, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo took three wickets but other bowlers could not bowl well. Chennai bowlers need to perform as a unit.
After early failures from CSK's Rituraj Gaikwad and Devon Conway, experienced Robin Uthappa could not convert their good starts into big innings. Captain Ravindra Jadeja could not perform with the bat, which he has given for Team India recently. Against Lucknow, CSK's upper-order batsmen would like to do better. The presence of Moeen Ali for the selection in the playing 11 will be a big relief for the defending champions Chennai. Chennai will expect good captaincy from their new captain Jadeja with better bowling. Bravo needs only 1 wicket to become the most successful bowler in IPL.
Again, hoping for Mahi Magic, in the
In the first match, Dhoni played the first 25 balls and scored only 15 runs at a strike rate of 60. Social media had begun the round of criticism of Dhoni's slow innings. Meanwhile, he scored 35 runs in the next 13 balls. His shots against Andre Russell and Shivam Mavi were telling that even today Dhoni is one of the best finishers in the world. In the 20th over of the innings, Dhoni's boundary on Russell's yorker from mid-wicket was reminiscent of the old Mahendra Singh Dhoni. CSK will be hoping for another similar inning.