HomeCricketChennai vs Kolkata, Indian T20 League 2020, Match Preview

Chennai vs Kolkata, Indian T20 League 2020, Match Preview

Kolkata takes on Chennai in a do-die clash to retain their playoff hopes in Indian T20 League 2020

Match Timings: Oct 29, 7:30 PM 

Team Preview 

Kolkata finds themselves in a nutshell of errors and it led them to a potential elimination from the playoffs. The loss against Punjab has changed their journey and they moved to 5th after retaining 4th spot for around three weeks. One more loss will create a blunder for them as they face next Rajasthan and the game will be a knock out itself. Kolkata had a roller coaster journey. Their players are showing slight glimpses and fade away later with the same loose approach. You cannot pick one player who remained consistent apart from the skipper Morgan. The same happened with the bowling unit which hasn’t delivered much. Russell might be ignored or Morgan could try something different with dropping either Cummins and Ferguson to add him at finishing end. The struggling approach is a big worrying sign and McCullum needs to tell their unit to play counter cricket in virtual knock out games. 

Meanwhile, Chennai are already out of the playoff race and they are just playing with a free mindset to gain moral victories in the end. Chennai saw the missing spark against Bangalore with an 8-wickets victory, riding on youngsters Gaikwad and Curran. Dhoni has already shown the intent to try youngsters and Monu Kumar was also introduced in the previous game. It is unlikely that the skipper will make any change in the squad, keeping in mind the surface of Dubai. Two main spinners Santner and Tahir can easily trouble Kolkata and their playoffs hopes. The win in the last game also boosted their confidence. Chennai has nothing to lose but they can make a last try to avoid a bottom finish this season. 

Pitch Report 

Dubai’s surface is a bit dry and it provides a good amount of help to spin. The track get slow and spinners take advantage. The sluggish behaviour can trouble batsman to read balls clearly. Chasing is not an ideal call on this track. 

Possible XI 

Chennai 

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Monu Kumar

Kolkata 

Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy

Key Players 

Chennai 

Faf du Plessis 

This season – M: 12, Runs: 401, Avg: 40.10 

Sam Curran 

This season – M: 12, Runs: 173, Wickets: 13 

Kolkata 

Eoin Morgan 

This season – M: 12, Runs: 335, Avg: 37.22 

Shubman Gill 

This season – M: 12, Runs: 378, Avg: 34.36  

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