High-flying Bangalore takes on struggling Chennai in the first Sunday double-header fixture of Indian T20 League 2020.
Match Timings: Oct 25, 3:30 PM
Team Preview
2020 is a surprise for Chennai and Bangalore. Chennai who has been pretty consistent in the tournament history is sitting at the bottom and Bangalore finds themselves in top three after poor shows in the last couple of years. Chennai’s humiliation against Mumbai delivered a farewell for them as they are out of the playoff race for the first time in the history of this tournament. Dhoni gave an opportunity to Jagadeesan and Gaikwad but both went for a duck. Sam Curran played a handy knock to cross 100 for them. Chennai’s losing margins will describe their performance. In the last two games, they posted 125 and 114 while batting first. The morale is low but Dhoni would aim to avoid a bottom finish in the league. The youngsters will be retained despite a poor show in the previous game.
Meanwhile, Bangalore are flying high with outstanding bowling show against Kolkata. Siraj’s 8/3 and tight bowling from the spinners restricted Kolkata on just 84. Bangalore is now a compact T20 unit and their bowling unit has also been improved. Chahal and Sundar are handling the spin department with economical spells. Morris and Siraj’s bowling with new ball is a big boost. Finch is not converting his start but when you win matches, you don’t think much about it. Mumbai backed De Cock in the first half and he surprised everyone with amazing batting skills. ABD and Kohli both are in fabulous form, following the fine support from Padikkal at top. Their playoffs are assured but the top-two finish will decide on their performance in upcoming fixtures. The net run-rate might play a big role to decide the top two finish and win against Kolkata has surely improved their NRR part. It’s a fine opportunity for Kohli to make a double over Chennai for the first time in tournament history.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s surface is good for batting and it has a good amount of help to pacers and spinners both. The surface gets slow later the match progresses. Chasing is a bit tricky but with a sensible approach, chasing sides can achieve 160 on this surface.
Possible Lineups
Bangalore
Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal
Chennai
Sam Curran, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazlewood, Imran Tahir
Key Players
Bangalore
Virat Kohli
This season – M: 10, Runs: 365, Avg: 60.83
Devdutt Padikkal
This season – M: 10, Runs: 321, Avg: 32.10
Chennai
Faf du Plessis
This season – M: 11, Runs: 376, Avg: 41.77
Sam Curran
This season – M: 11, Runs: 173, SR: 136.22, Wickets: 10
