IPL 2018, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at Pune, latest update and cricket score: Big over for CSK and Raina has 14 runs to tie the score. He however chose to defend the last ball when only one was required. It seems captain MSD will finish off the game.
Preview:Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) face the herculean task of stopping a star-studded Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to seal a playoff berth when the two sides face-off in their last Indian Premier League (IPL) league game at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Sunday.
Apart from Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) also share 12 points each and with a sole match remaining for them, any of the four could make to the final four.
With the race for the playoffs becoming an interesting scenario, Punjab will have to register a win with a huge margin as their net run-rate reads a poor -0.490.
The Ravichandran Ashwin-led side kicked-off the 2018 season on a decent note, winning five of their first six games but faultered in the business end of the league.
Barring opener KL Rahul, who has 652 runs from 13 innings, Punjab have failed to click as a unit.
Chris Gayle came out with some impressive knocks in the first half of the season but failed to maintain his form.
Aaron Finch, Karun Nair, Marcus Stonis, Mayank Agarwal and Yuvraj Singh have failed to score so far.
In the bowling department, Andrew Tye has single-handedly led the pace attack with 24 wickets from 13 games and is currently the leading wicket taker in the league.
Teenaged Afghan spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman (14 wickets) has also been impressive while pacer Ankit Rajpoot (eight wickets), off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (six wickets) and medium-pacer Mohit Sharma (six wickets) need to raise the bar against Chennai.
On the other hand, having already qualified for the playoffs, Chennai will be eager to finish the league stage at the top spot.
The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side were handed a 34-run defeat by Delhi Daredevils in their last game on Friday.
For Chennai, Ambati Rayadu has been brilliant so far, delivering on most occasions. He has been among the runs and has received good support from his partner Shane Watson.
Playing 13 innings, Rayudu has 585 runs while the Australian all-rounder has gathered 438 runs.
Skipper Dhoni (430 runs), has once again silenced his critics while Suresh Raina, who failed with the bat against Delhi, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja will also need to come good with the bat on Sunday.
Deepak Chahar is back from injury which has also bolstered the yellow brigade's pace attack.
Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi have also emerged with breakthroughs whenever the side needed. However, Bravo needs to learn from his last game, where he was hammered for 26 runs in the final over.
It could be an another edge-of-the-seat match for fans as both the sides will be hungry for win in the last league game of the season.
Squads:
Kings XI Punjab: Ravichandran Ashwin (captain), Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Lokesh Rahul (wicketkeeper), Karun Nair, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Barinder Sran, David Miller, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Axar Patel, Akshdeep Nath, Mayank Agarwal, Manoj Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Dagar.
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf Du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayadu, Deepak Chahar, K M Asif, Kanish Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshtiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N. Jagadeesan, David Willy.
IPL points table: SRH are currently sitting pretty at the top of the table having accumulated 18 points from their 14 games this season. KXIP are in seventh position with 12 points from 13 games. Check out the updated IPL points table here.
