Match details
Chennai Super Kings (P 7 W4 L3; 4th) vs Lucknow Super Giants (P 7 W4 L3; 5th;)
Chennai, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)
Big picture – CSK vs LSG, round 2
A big reason behind CSK’s stellar record over the years has been their dominance at home. Continuing that trend, they have won their all three home games so far in IPL 2024. However, they have had just one win in four away games, which makes it even more important for them to win at home.
Fortunately, starting Tuesday, they will get three successive games at Chepauk. If they can win all three, they will have one foot in the playoffs.
It will be interesting to see what type of pitch CSK prepare. Do they play to their strengths, or try to deny LSG what they are used to?
Form guide
Chennai Super Kings LWWLL (last five matches, most recent first)
Lucknow Super Giants WLLWW
Previous meeting
Playing in Lucknow, CSK posted 176 for 6, thanks to a half-century from Ravindra Jadeja and yet another cameo from MS Dhoni. In response, KL Rahul scored a superb 82 off 53 to help his side to an eight-wicket win.
Team news and impact player strategy
Chennai Super Kings
Probable XII 1 Rachin Ravindra, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Sameer Rizvi, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Mustafizur Rahman, 12 Matheesha Pathirana
Lucknow Super Giants
Padikkal and Mohsin Khan can be LSG’s Impact Players, depending on whether they are bowling first or batting.
Probable XII 1 Quinton de Kock, 2 KL Rahul (capt, wk), 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Ayush Badoni, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Mohsin Khan, 12 Yash Thakur
In the spotlight
KL Rahul has gone the other way around. He started slowly but has really picked up the pace in the last few games. In the first four games of the season, he scored at a strike rate of 125.49 in the powerplay. Since then, he has smashed it at 185.11 – something he has always been capable of. It’s a great sign for LSG, not so for the other teams.
Stats that matter
Pitch and conditions
In three games at Chepauk so far, three different types of totals have been posted by teams batting first: 173 for 6 by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (lost), 206 for 6 by CSK (won) and 137 for 9 by Kolkata Knight Riders (lost). While a lot depends on how the pitch plays on the given day, both CSK and LSG will aim for a total of around 200.
Quotes
“He [Mustafizur Rahman] has got that wonderful slower ball, which is hard to hit particularly here in Chennai. We will be sad when he goes [back to Bangladesh], but his country is calling. We want to keep him for as long as he can. We’ve been delighted with his output so far.”
CSK batting coach Michael Hussey on Mustafizur Rahman
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
