In the 38th Match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 able-topper Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be locking horns with fourth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the first match of Sunday’s doubleheader in the UAE leg of the ongoing season. Unlike the IPL 2020, when they failed to make it to the playoffs, CSK has been in phenomenal form in the season and is sitting at second place with seven wins in nine games.
CSK started off their UAE campaign on a positive note as they registered comfortable wins against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and are just one win away from sealing a playoff spot. On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have looked at a completely different outfit in the second leg in comparison to the India leg of the tournament.
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In their first leg of the UAE leg, KKR first completely outplayed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 9 wickets in the opening fixture and then smashed MI bowlers all over the park in their dominant win by 7 wickets win in the second outing in Abu Dhabi. With four wins in five matches, KKR is comfortably sitting at the fourth spot and needs three victories in their remaining five encounters.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
Sam Curran’s stay on the bench will be expected to extend after Dwayne Bravo’s impactful outing against RCB and MI. Ruturaj Gaikwad has been playing a crucial role for CSK so far in the last two outings against KKR in IPL, and the best strike rate through the middle-overs this season (164.13) – a phase of the game that KKR looks to dominate through the spin.
Probable XI: Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Sunil Narine has been bowling brilliantly in the middle-overs where CSK has come armed with a revamped mindset. He has taken 15 wickets in 14 IPL outings against CSK, with an economy rate of 6.29. This could be another game where KKR will be better served holding back Andre Russell for the death overs batting, where he has had a measure of Dwayne Bravo – hitting him for 78 runs in 30 balls.
Probable XI: Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
Fantasy XI Suggestion 1:
MS Dhoni, Faf du Plessis (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Andre Russell (VC), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur
Fantasy XI Suggestion 2:
MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Venkatesh Iyer (c), Rahul Tripathi, Faf du Plessis, Ravindra Jadeja, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Varun Chakravarthy, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson
