Dharamsala: Chennai's fate lies as much in their own hands as in the hands of other teams. For starters, they will have to win their game against Punjab at Dharamshala on Sunday to keep their hopes alive of remaining in the competition. Punjab, on the other hand, would like keep their pride intact in what has been otherwise a disastrous IPL - III for them and sign off on a winning note.
On paper, Chennai look far superior, but the problem with them has been their batting. Matthew Hayden like most Australian batsmen this time has not fired and Mike Hussey seems to have terribly lost his touch. Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina are the only two batsmen who have taken Chennai to most of their wins and the side would hope for an encore from them. Skipper MS Dhoni has also been short of runs and it's time for a Dhoni special.
Meanwhile, hosts Punjab have come a long way since their insipid performances in the first leg. Their batting has started to click and Sri Lankan players Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have begun to look extremely dangerous. Even Yuvraj Singh seems to be finding his feet which is a good sign for India ahead of the T20 World Cup.
If the three click again in tandem, they could gatecrash Chennai's party.
Chennai's bowling too is better than Punjab's. The team almost defended a paltry score of 112 against Delhi in their last game. Ravichandran Ashwin and Shadab Jakati have done well with their slow spinners and Doug Bollinger has made an incredible impact since coming into the side. It was Bollinger's first over in the last game where he scalped both Virender Sehwag and Tillakratne Dilshan that opened the floodgates for Delhi. The Punjab batsmen will have to see him off and can then look to accelerate in the middle overs.
Chennai also have an edge being a better fielding unit and the likes of Raina, Hussey, Hayden and Morkel all of a safe pair of hands. Punjab will have to pull up their socks in this regard. They have dropped important catches in crucial games and they cannot make the same mistake against the Chennai Super Kings.
The pitch at Dharamshala is a belter and its high time the Mongoose fires. If it does, Sangakkara's average bowling outfit willl have their task cut out. Punjab in their last game at the same venue could not defend a good score of 174 against Deccan Chargers. That tells a lot about the bowling arsenal Sangakkara possesses. For him what will be pertinent is that his batsmen score a lot many runs to put any pressure on the opposition. For now though Chennai look to be the firm favourites.
0 comments:
Post a Comment