Chennai, March 30 (Inditop.com) The Chennai Super Kings need to exorcise the ghosts of the Super Over defeat 10 days ago here at Chepauk to re-start their campaign in the Indian Premier League as they take on the high-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore Wednesday.
The Super Over defeat against Kings XI Punjab has had a snowballing effect on the Super Kings as they went on to suffer three more reverses to presently lie seventh in the league standings. And now, down in the dumps, the home team is hoping for a turnaround on the morrow.
With just four points from seven games, the Super Kings have to win at least five of the next seven to remain in contention for the semi-finals as they have done in the previous two seasons.
In 2008, the Chennai outfit lost four games and the following year, five, but yet made it to the top four on both occasions. This time around, with other teams considerably strengthened following the arrival of foreign players for the second half of the competition, the Super Kings need to play out of their skins to surge ahead.
While the Royal Challengers have played quite consistently to occupy second spot behind Mumbai Indians on the leaderboard, the Super Kings haven’t quite got over the traumatic defeat to the Kings XI March 21. The home team, with the scores tied, needed one run off the final two deliveries, but failed.
Since that day, it has been a downhill ride for the Super Kings who also missed skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for three crucial games, owing to an elbow injury. His return to the squad has not brought about a change in fortunes for the team that was one of the pre-tournament favourites.
In the past few games, the Chennai outfit, in sheer desperation, chopped and changed, but never got the combination right. Some of the selections have been rather baffling as Dhoni apparently followed his “gut feeling” while picking or dropping players. It has led to a situation where nobody knows what to expect from the team, much less who will be in the playing eleven.
The Super Kings are hoping that the arrival of two Aussie stars batsman Mike Hussey and fast bowler Doug Bolliger, currently in New Zealand for a Test series that concludes tomorrow, would add much needed steel and sharpness to the team — but not before their next game, also at home, on April 3 against the Rajasthan Royals.
Thus, the Super Kings are under tremendous pressure to win against RCB, a side that is considerably buoyed by the return of hard-hitting England batsman Kevin Pietersen and has lost only two of their six matches.
The last time the two teams met, in Bangalore a week back, the Super Kings were riding high after pegging the home team to 110 for three after 16 overs, but conceded 61 runs in the final four with Robin Uthappa, dropped when on five and 25, making a 38-ball 68 to help his team post 171. The Super Kings then lost their way while chasing as seamer Vinay Kumar delivered crucial blows to pick up four wickets that eventually earned him a berth in the Indian T20 World Cup squad.
The Anil Kumble-led Banglore team appears a better team with a strong batting line-up and a very sharp bowling attack that could prove decisive on the bouncy Chepauk pitch.
The one critical factor is the 4 p.m. start that provides for conditions alien to the Bangaloreans who are unused to extreme heat and humidity, while the Super Kings can count on frenzied support from the sell-out crowd that will be rooting for the home team.
