Right, here we go! Chennai Super Kings vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore; M S Dhoni vs. Virat Kohli. Who will win?
It’s hard to tell, but one thing is clear – RCB must win. Every match for RCB is a must-win situation. A defeat in this evening game and it’s curtains for Kohli’s boys.
This is the part of the tournament when the cream rises to the top and CSK will be at their absolute best. Are there chinks in the CSK armour? Yes, there is one. A big one.
Ravindra Jadeja.
Jadeja has been very, very poor for CSK. His bowling has been mediocre and even his fielding has not been that great. What’s been glaring though has been Jadeja’s batting.
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Jadeja was supposed to be an all-rounder in this team. He has often batted ahead of DJ Bravo. But he has not put in even one decent performance.
His performance in the last game against KKR was really, really poor. Jadeja only got 12 runs off 12 balls when batting in the death overs. This is not good, and certainly not up to the high standards we expect from a CSK player.
It is certainly time to replace Jadeja. One would think David Willey, the English fast-medium bowler who has the ability to hit big would be the right replacement.
But we don’t really know with Dhoni. If you have observed Dhoni’s career over the last 10-15 years, you will note how loyal he is to his players. Dhoni never drops a player unless he starts playing very poorly. That’s beginning to happen with Jadeja.
Will Jadeja be dropped? We will know soon enough.
As for RCB, AB de Villiers has been declared fit and he will be back in place of Quinton de Kock who has flown back to South Africa for a family wedding.
Prediction: With ABD back in the RCB team, anything is possible. But CSK start are favorites.
The Teams
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Ravindra Jadeja, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Imran Tahir, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 KM Asif
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Manan Vohra/Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Brendon McCullum 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Mandeep Singh, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Watch Chennai Super Kings play Royal Challengers Bangalore just a few hours from now at 4 pm Live on Star Sports!
