A confident Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will aim to maintain their dominance in the IPL when they host bottom-placed Rajasthan Royals at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
While the defending champions are sitting at the second spot in the points table with two wins from as many games, Rajasthan have lost both their games and it will be a herculean task for the Ajinkya Rahane-led side to stop Chennai, one of the most successful teams in IPL history.
Meanwhile, all eyes will also be on the Chepauk wicket as just 141 runs were scored here in the first game of the season featuring Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai. Rajasthan's batting unit has done an excellent job so far, but their bowlers have let them down.
On the other hand, the Chennai bowlers have done a fair job till now and are likely to give a difficult time to the visiting batsmen on the Chepauk wicket.
What to expect?
The pitch turned square at times in the first match. It was slow and both teams struggled to get 70 odd runs in the tournament opener. MS Dhoni called for a better turf. Expect a better batting friendly top at the Chepauk. However, it is unlikely to be a high-scoring encounter until and unless someone is on song.
Probable playing XIs:
CSK: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir.
RR: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Jos Buttler (WK), Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni
