Chennai Super Kings will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in ‘Match 17’ of the 2022 Indian Premier League season at the Dr DY Patil Stadium on Saturday. Sunrisers Hyderabad is occupying the last position in the standings, with Chennai Super Kings being stationed a couple of positions ahead of them.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings have had a horrendous start to their IPL 2022 campaign. They have lost all of their first three matches and will be desperate to get a move on from this game onwards.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s situation is not any better either, as they too are yet to open their points tally. However, unlike their opponents, Kane Williamson’s team has played only a couple of games so far – succumbing to defeats on both occasions.
What have they done so far?
Chennai faced Kolkata Knight Riders in their opening game, where they batted first and could accumulate only 131 runs. Ravindra Jadeja’s bowlers could not come to the team’s rescue either as the Knights registered a comfortable six-wicket triumph.
The yellow army’s batting display was significantly better in the second match against Lucknow Super Giants, where they scored 210 runs. However, the bowlers failed to deliver once again as the four-time champions succumbed to a six-wicket defeat.
CSK bowled first and conceded 180 runs in their last match against Punjab Kings, but this time around, it was their batters’ turn to let the team down as they scored only 126 runs in the chase.
Sunrisers Hyderabad bowled first in their first match against Rajasthan Royals and leaked 210 runs. The target was difficult to chase down but Williamson’s men failed to offer any fight at all, as they could only score a meagre 149.
The bowling was much better in their second match against Lucknow Super Giants, where Sunrisers restricted KL Rahul’s team to only 169 runs. However, their batters could not back the bowlers’ impressive display and all they could muster up was 157 runs.
Head to Head Record
Chennai Super Kings hold the upper hand in head-to-head records, as they have won 13 of the 17 outings against Sunrisers Hyderabad, with the men in orange having the last laugh on only four occasions. The last meeting between these two sides saw CSK registering a six-wicket win, courtesy of fabulous performances of Josh Hazlewood and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Key Players
Shivam Dube has emerged as an unlikely batting kingpin for Chennai Super Kings
Shivam Dube: Shivam Dube might have been expensive with the ball in the two matches where he rolled his arm over, but he has emerged as CSK’s main pillar with the bat. The utility cricketer has scored 109 runs in three matches at an average of 36.33 and an even better strike rate of over 165. Dube scored a 30-ball 57 in the last match against Punjab Kings, whilst in the preceding clash against Lucknow Super Giants, he scored a 30-ball 49.
Washington Sundar: Washington Sundar has lived up to his tag of being a ‘360°’ cricketer in the two matches so far. He was outstanding with the bat against the Royals scoring 40 runs from 14 deliveries, while he delivered with the ball against the Super Giants, picking up the crucial wickets of Quinton de Kock and Evin Lewis.
Predicted Playing XI
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Shivam Dube, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Jordan, Dwaine Pretorius, Tushar Deshpande.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (c), Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Priyam Garg, Romario Shepherd, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Kartik Tyagi.
Prediction
While both teams have made a horrendous start to their campaign, the head-to-head statistics are incredibly skewed in favour of Chennai Super Kings, while they also seem to be a slightly better-balanced side on paper than Sunrisers Hyderabad. Hence, we have predicted Jadeja & Co. to open their account in the ongoing league season.