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East London: Monday's match at Buffalo Park in East London is between teams which had contrasting starts to the second season of the IPL but are now experiencing a change in form.
Last year's finalists Chennai Super Kings had a slow start to the tournament despite their squad brimming with hard-hitting all-round talent. They are on a two-match winning streak and will be hoping to make a hat-trick of wins, which was done by Deccan Chargers early on in the league.
Deccan Chargers, despite their last two losses, are a formidable outfit and are one of the favourites to win the title and atone for their dismal performance in the first edition, where they finished at the bottom of the table.
This time under a new captain in Adam Gilchrist, Deccan Chargers have forced everyone to stand up and take notice of their performance. Their batting has looked solid with Gilchrist leading the charge. Youngsters like Rohit Sharma and Azhar Bilakhia have also come out with good innings.
Chennai's have banked primarily on Matthew Hayden, the season's highest runscorer with 246, and Suresh Raina, the second highest with 232, for most of their runs. Their powerful allrounders - MS Dhoni, Albie Morkel and Jacob Oram - haven't played a match-winning role as yet. Chennai's bowling isn't the strongest in the tournament but two youngsters - Shadab Jakati and Sudeep Tyagi - played crucial parts in the win against Delhi. Muttiah Muralitharan has been economical, conceding less than six runs an over, but Chennai will want him to add quickly to his haul of five wickets.
Deccan have relied heavily on their openers - Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs - for momentum. Rohit Sharma's performances have tapered after an outstanding half-century against Bangalore but Deccan seem to have found a talent in 25-year old T Suman who has 64 runs from two innings at a strike-rate of 145. RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha are their leading wicket-takers with 12 and 10 respectively while Edwards has been restrictive with the new ball. Edwards, though, has left South Africa to join the West Indian squad in England and Deccan will need to pick a replacement.
Match facts
Monday May 04, 2009 (day/night)
Start time 04.30pm, 14.30GMT, 08:00pm IST
