IPL 2018: Who will win the battle of the Kings?
With just one win in their last 7 games, Punjab's season has seen a spectacular reversal of fortune. Punjab have a final chance to redeem themselves as they take on Chennai Super Kings in their last league-game of the season at Pune. A massive win tonight can help them qualify for the play-offs. Here are the head-to-head records and probable XI for this fixture.
The two sides have met on 18 occasions with Chennai boasting a slightly better record with 10 wins under their belt, as compared to Punjab's 8 victories. In matches played at stadiums other than these two teams' headquarters, the head-to-head records read 4-4. However, Kings XI Punjab have lost five out of their six games at Pune.
Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Sam Billings, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper and captain), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur and Lungi Ngidi.
Lokesh Rahul (wicket-keeper), Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (captain), Andrew Tye, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohit Sharma and Ankit Rajpoot.
Axar Patel has been the thorn in Watson's flesh in 7 matches they have faced each other. Watson has lost his wicket to Axar 5 times, in 29 balls while scoring 25 runs. Mohit and Ashwin are the two bowlers who have dismissed Rayudu the most number of times. Mohit has bagged Rayudu's wicket 5 times while Ashwin has dismissed him on 4 occasions.
Chris Gayle is shy of just 6 runs to become the second overseas player (after David Warner) to slam 4,000 IPL runs. On the other hand, CSK captain MS Dhoni is 9 runs away from reaching the 4000-run landmark in the cash-rich league.
