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Chennai: The time is fast running out for Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders who are to fight off a do-or-die Indian Premier League (IPL) game here Tuesday.
With both teams on 10 points after 11 matches, it is a must-win situation for them.
Their precarious positions on the leaderboard apart, there is little to separate the two teams as both are coming off shock defeats following mediocre performances, something that the rival captains, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly have themselves admitted.
The adversaries are also aware that a win Tuesday is no guarantee of progress vis-a-vis semi-final slots as there are three other teams who are better placed on points.
The last meeting between the teams was in Kolkata where the hosts capitulated to 109 chasing a target of 165, but it was the game that saw Dhoni rendered hors de combat after being struck on the elbow by fast bowler Shane Bond.
The injury kept Dhoni out of action for the next three games, two of which the Super Kings lost to start a sequence of four consecutive defeats before the team picked itself to register three wins in a row.
In contrast, the Knight Riders have not enjoyed a period of sustained ascendancy with results alternating between wins and losses to the point of unsettling the team. A visibly agitated Ganguly slammed his team for under-performing after the loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the previous game.
On the other hand, Dhoni, who prefers to keep his counsel and rarely wears emotions on his sleeves, believes that all is not lost for his team that has the advantage of playing two of the final three games at home and then flying to Dharamasala to play party-spoilers Kings XI Punjab. Two more wins would surely put them in semi-final contention.
The same is the case with the Knight Riders who would be playing their last away game here before hosting the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians in their concluding league fixtures.
Thus, all things being equal between the Super Kings and Knight Riders, the game assumes greater significance. To further even things up, both sides are still to settle down to a winning combination despite carrying out many changes to the playing eleven.
For the Super Kings, the good news is that the two South African all-rounders Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp have recovered from injuries, and quite likely Morkel would get to join opener Matthew Hayden, fast bowler Doug Bollinger and either Muttiah Muralitharan or Thilan Thushara, but at the expense of middle-order batsman Mike Hussey who hasn't had the best of outings in the IPL so far.
Muralitharan sitting out two consecutive games caused a buzz and his omission from the game at Nagpur last weekend that the Super Kings lost to Deccan Chargers raised quite a few eyebrows.
Dhoni also might be inclined to try Hemang Badani who provides him an additional spin option besides a middle-order batsman though his inclusion is a matter of speculation at this moment.
As for the Knight Riders, a lot depends on the performance of the top four batsmen - Ganguly, Christ Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Manoj Tiwary. In the bowling department, the skipper has a choice of plenty, but he had to deal with inconsistent performances.
Kiwi fast bowler Shane Bond could get a game, considering the traditionally quick and bouncy pitch at Chepauk.
Team from
Chennai Super Kings MS Dhoni (capt & wk), R Ashwin, HK Badani, S Badrinath, GJ Bailey, L Balaji, DE Bollinger, C Ganapathy, MS Gony, ML Hayden, MEK Hussey, SB Jakati, AB Karthik, JM Kemp, JA Morkel, M Muralitharan, M Ntini, PA Patel (wk), NLTC Perera, SK Raina, T Thushara, S Tyagi, M Vijay
Kolkata Knight Riders SC Ganguly (capt), VR Aaron, AB Agarkar, SE Bond, AB Dinda, Eklak Ahmid, RS Gavaskar, CH Gayle, BJ Hodge, Iqbal Abdulla, M Kartik, HH Khadiwale, CK Langeveldt, BB McCullum (wk), AD Mathews, BAW Mendis, CR Pathak, CA Pujara, WP Saha (wk), OA Shah, I Sharma, LR Shukla, MK Tiwary, G Vignesh
Match facts
Tuesday April 13, 2010 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)
