We bring to you the Weather Report, Pitch Report and Head to Head of the CSK vs KXIP encounter to be held today at the MCA Stadium in Pune which is the 56th match of IPL 2018.
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It is very unlikely that the result of the fixture between CSK and KXIP has any bearing on the overall scenario. The only fruitful thing that can come out of this is that if CSK beat KXIP by a big margin, they will climb to the top of the table. CSK can be pushed to the 3rd spot only when they lose to KXIP by 76 runs or with 50 balls to spare.
KXIP on the other hand, have to depend on other teams. First of all, DD need to beat Mumbai in Sunday’s afternoon game. After that, KXIP have to beat CSK by 53+ runs or with 38+ balls to stand an outside chance for a playoff berth.
Also Read: CSK’s probable playing XI against KXIP at Pune
Weather Report
The caravan moves to Pune in the peak of summers in India and the hilly terrain is set to welcome both teams with temperatures ranging from 30 to 40 degree Celsius.
While it would be relatively hot in the afternoon, the atmosphere will cool down a bit around the starting time of the match and will hover around 30 degrees.
The humidity levels will be around 50%-60% at night but the good news is that there are no chances of rain.
Pitch Report
The pitch of CSK’s adopted home ground at Pune is much like their own den in Chennai. The pitch is on the slower side and the ball grips on the surface. In the last match against RCB at the ground, Bangalore were bundled up for a meager score, with Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja leading the charge.
If Mujeeb ur Rahman becomes fit for third match, KXIP would be able to match CSK’s attack with three quality spinners in skipper Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel and Mujeeb.
CSK are expected to include Imran Tahir in the final XI to further bolster their spin department.
Head to Head
CSK and KXIP have played 18 games with each other till now. In these games, CSK have ended on top, winning 10 games where as KXIP have managed to win 8.
In the last match between the two teams, KXIP managed to clinch the game that went down to the wire. Mohit Sharma was defending 17 runs of the last over with MS Dhoni on strike. Dhoni scored 12 as KXIP met a 4-run win.
Squads
CSK:
Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Sam Billings, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Dhruv Shorey, Monu Kumar, Kshitiz Sharma, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Kanishk Seth, N Jagadeesan, KM Asif
KXIP:
Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle, Manoj Tiwary, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Aaron Finch, Mohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul (wk), Axar Patel, Ankit Rajpoot, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, David Miller, Karun Nair, Akshdeep Nath, Barinder Sran, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Manzoor Dar
