Buoyed by their convincing seven-wicket win over title holders Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings will take on Kings XI Punjab in their second IPL knockout game inside three days on Friday with swashbuckling batsman Glenn Maxwell being a major threat to their chances.
Riding on the 25-year-old Australian batsman’s incandescent 90-plus run knocks in Abu Dhabi and Cuttack in the group stage of the T20 League, Kings XI Punjab had flattened two-time champions Chennai Super Kings.
Friday’s Qualifier 2 at Wankhede Stadium will provide Chennai a great platform to avenge those two defeats and leapfrog into the June 1 summit clash against Kolkata Knight Riders at Bangalore.
However, to achieve the feat of entering the final for the sixth time, Chennai will have to stop Maxwell, who simply tore into their bowlers, especially two key spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja on the two previous occasions.
Maxwell, the third highest run-scorer with 539 runs in this season, smashed 95 in 43 balls in Abu Dhabi last month to help Punjab chase down a massive 206-run target set up by the Chennai Super Kings.
The English batsman was even more dominating in his subsequent clash earlier this month at Cuttack, where he hit a whirlwind 90 off just 35 balls to power Punjab to an incredible score of 231.
Ashwin was smashed for 38 runs without a wicket in just two overs by Maxwell, while Jadeja conceded 37 runs in three overs without any wicket. The destruction of these two Super Kings’ bowlers by Maxwell will certainly come up for discussion by the Super Kings’ think-tank ahead of their do-or-die encounter.
But Chennai will certainly look to take advantage of the fact that Kings XI, who had looked almost unstoppable during the group stage, have had their hiccups of late. They were beaten comprehensively by KKR on Wednesday. Kings XI need to not only regroup quickly but also get over the travel fatigue in order to match the efficiency of the Super Kings, who simply outplayed Mumbai Indians on Wednesday.
CSK changed their opening combination as they sent South Africa’s Faf du Plessis along with Dwayne Smith, the second highest run-scorer with 559 runs this season, instead of in-form New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum.
CSK’s overall display was efficient without being flamboyant, and they would require another such stellar performance to deflate Kings XI’s hopes of making their maiden entry into the IPL title contest. CSK have relied on their Indian bowling trio of purple cap holder Mohit Sharma and two lead spinners (Ashwin and Jadeja), and would hope they can do the trick against the marauding blades of not only Maxwell and David Miller but also Virender Sehwag and Manan Vohra.