Chennai Super Kings eye revival as they face Royal Challengers Bangalore

Sport360 staff 12:59 22/04/2015
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  • Fireworks needed: CSK captain Dhoni will be looking for an all-round batting effort.

    Smarting from their crushing defeat against table-toppers Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings will seek a quick turnaround as they take on bottom-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore tonight.

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    Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team went into their previous clash against Rajasthan unbeaten in three previous games.

    But they were blown away by a rampant Rajasthan outfit as they were restricted to 156 for four. The Royals chased down the target with eight wickets in hand.

    Chennai are aware of the fact that their batting revolves around openers Brendon McCullum (162 runs) and Dwayne Smith (163) with only Dhoni having clocked in more than 100 runs.

    Big guns like Suresh Raina (65 runs from four games), Faf du Plessis (44 from three) and Dwayne Bravo (76 from four) have not done enough with the bat and the men in yellow know that’s a weakness that can be exploited.

    Fielding coach Steve Rixon admitted his team needs to iron out the flaws as soon as possible.

    He said: “We had a chat with the top-order batsmen to adjustments in the way they thought about their games. Our bowlers, with 160 on the board (against Rajasthan), they probably needed a few more than that to bowl with.

    "But generally it was the little things that let us down in that game and it is just the matter of getting our heads around that and go back to doing what we do so well.”

    Their bowling, however, is decent shape with as many as three frontline bowlers – left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra, swing bowler Ishwar Pandey and spinner Ravi Ashwin – going at less than eight runs an over. 

    The bowlers will need to be on top of their game as they will be up against a Bangalore batting line-up that has Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers.

    Gayle has clobbered 127 runs from three innings and de Villiers 115 from three outing.

    However, the rest of the batsmen haven’t done as well with captain Virat Kohli especially poor at the top of the order, scoring just 72 runs. 

    If Chennai’s bowlers can keep Gayle and de Villiers quiet, Bangalore will be in deep trouble.

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