Chennai Super Kings have looked like a pale shadow of themselves in the 2025 edition of the IPL as nothing seemed to have worked for the Men in Yellow. With a couple of youngsters showing some ‘spark’, CSK will aim to build a core for the next season as they finish off the last few games.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) haven’t had the season they would have liked thus far, with seven losses and just a couple of wins. When pushed into a corner, in a desperation zone, the teams have come out with a fearless approach (RCB last year and RR a couple of days ago against the Gujarat Titans) and succeeded and Chennai Super Kings might have to do the same as even though they have tried to in the last couple of games, it hasn’t come off and they are stuck between taking it deep and accelerating in the middle overs.
Can Punjab Kings continue in that gear as they have played that way the whole season and if they are able to do so on Wednesday on a surface like Chepauk, that would do a world of good to their confidence before the Dharamsala leg.
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai pitch report
Chennai has unsurprisingly been slow. Apart from one game where Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) piled on 196 runs, the scores have remained in the 150-170 range and it is likely to be the case on Wednesday as well. With the spin trio CSK have at their disposal, the wickets have been conducive to spin, but like Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul and Rajat Patidar have shown, if done properly, there are runs to be had but yes, the spinners will get the assistance, and the batters will have to be careful.
Hence, the powerplay scores have been the difference and this is where the Super Kings need to be proactive and don’t let the two Punjab crackers up at the top burst, because if they get off to a flier, most certainly the hosts will not be able to match it. With a little bit of dew in the recent few games, batting second has become easy and since it’s not a belter, the captains usually take a chance with this wicket of restricting the opposition to scores of 150-170 and then are aware of exactly what is to be done.
Hence, the captain winning the toss might bowl first but given how Punjab Kings have gone about their business, it won’t be a surprise if Shreyas Iyer chooses to bat again if he ends up calling right. Punjab would rather have runs on the board and put pressure on the underconfident CSK batting line-up in the second innings, rather than take pressure of chasing on a slow wicket against CSK’s bowlers.
