The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Kings set to battle it out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 07, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Kings set to battle it out

— Photo: AFP

KEY MAN: Kings XI would be well served if its bowlers, especially Irfan Pathan, provide early breakthrough.

Centurion: After a thumping win over Deccan Chargers in its last encounter, a rejuvenated Chennai Super Kings will take on Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.

The 78-run victory against the Deccans has only added to the growing confidence of the Chennai side as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team, which fell at the final hurdle last year, is now comfortably placed second in the points tally.

In contrast, the Punjab team which lost its last match to Rajasthan Royals is on the sixth place with four wins and it will certainly count upon its batting might to register a win to go up in the standing.

Gutsy show

Skipper Yuvraj Singh, who made gutsy 37-ball 48 against Rajasthan, is the mainstay of its batting line-up with Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Australia batsman Simon Katich joining him in the middle order.

After young opener Sunny Sohal’s golden duck in the Rajasthan match, Yuvraj might opt for the previous combination at the beginning of innings and may himself pair up with Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara.

The left-arm paceman Yusuf Abdulla has surely made the batsmen’s life miserable and currently has the purple cap with 14 scalps so far, but Irfan Pathan and S. Sreesanth would have to lend support to the South African and fire in unison against the mighty Chennai batting.

On the other hand, Chennai team has found a devastating opener in Matthew Hayden, who has been in good form. M. Vijay too impressed in the last match.

Besides skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has shrugged off his bad run with a 37-ball 58 as his exploits helped the Chennai team romp home in the last match against Hyderabad.

Timely knocks

Suresh Raina, who has played a couple of timely knocks to his team’s cause, all-rounder Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel will prop up the middle order.

While Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan will keep the batsmen guessing, some timely spells from left-arm tweaker Shadab Jakati who scalped for wickets for 22 runs against Hyderabad, may well change the colour of the proceedings.

The new-ball pair of Morkel and Sudeep Tyagi has not forged a lethal pair, but its ability to fetch some early breakthroughs has often left the opponent team in disarray. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport