Chennai Super Kings are arguably the best IPL team around and perhaps the most consistent club since the start of the IPL seven years ago. The Super Kings are dominated by the persona of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and are pretty much built in his image. It is unthinkable to imagine the Chennai Super Kings without MS Dhoni.
Like MS Dhoni, the Super Kings score heavily and score fast. No team in T20’s short history has made as many runs as the Super Kings have. No other team has the sort of depth that the Chennai team has in its batting. Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina are arguably among the best batsmen for T20 cricket in subcontinental conditions and the form the top 3 of the Chennai Super Kings – a truly formidable batting line-up. Then you have the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, of course, and Dwayne Bravo to round off this incredible batting unit. Each of these players are match winners on their day, capable to turning any match situation on its head, regardless of how desperate the situation.
But what about Kings XI Punjab? In normal circumstances, it would be considered unthinkable for any side to out-bat the Chennai Super Kings, but Kings XI Punjab have precisely such a team. The Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab have played each other 3 times this year – and the Kings XI have won all the matches. No other team in history has had such a great record against the formidable Chennai side, and this shows that Kings XI Punjab are well on their way towards being the champion side of T20 cricket.
And they have a simple enough strategy. Pack in their big hitters at the top of the order. Glenn Maxwell and David Miller are perhaps the most exciting batsmen in limited overs cricket. And they are a part of an amazingly strong Kings XI batting line-up that also has the old warrior Virender Sehwag in it.
But the semi-finals will be played in Hyderabad. Kings XI Punjab can’t play in Mohali this time, where they have won the last 13 out of 18 games chasing. The Chennai Super Kings have played mostly in Bangalore, and they made a mammoth 242 for 6 against the South African side Dolphins, in one of the matches.
While both sides are packed with some of the most powerful batsmen in cricket, one can’t say the same about their bowling. Both Kings XI and Super Kings have ignored their bowling department, which means that they are never exactly safe, no matter how well they bat. Dwayne Bravo has been Super Kings’ best bowler, whose versatility has been handy for them in the death overs. But the other seamers haven’t been good enough and have sorely lacked in pace. Anureet Singh has been impressive in his first tournament for Kings XI, and Akshar Patel has been quite impressive as well. But neither of the two sides have any genuine wicket takers in them and are better at restricting runs than at picking up wickets.
