Pumped-up Kings XI Punjab are ready to take on Chennai Super Kings in their second match of Indian Premier League. Kings XI Punjab won their opening encounter against Pune Warriors and their bowling unit looks lethal with the likes of Praveen Kumar and Azhar Mahmood. On the other hand, Chennai Super Kings lost their opener to Mumbai Indians because of their batting failure.
Here we bring before you the players who can make the difference in the outcome of this exciting encounter between the bowlers of Kings XI Punjab and batters of Chennai Super Kings.
Kings XI Punjab (KXI-P)
Adam Gilchrist: “Gilly” showed the glimpse of what damage he can do when he batted against the Pune Warriors and his team would surely need him to fire for as long as he can. He is one of those leaders who can rejuvenate the whole side with his presence on the field and his captaincy was at its best when Kings XI Punjab beat the Pune Warriors by 99 runs.
Azhar Mahmood: Azhar showed a high-quality swing bowling in the last match. He was using the Yorkers and short-deliveries to tease the batsmen quite frequently. His unpredictable line and length can do some serious damage to Chennai Super Kings especially after the failure of their middle-order in last match against Mumbai Indians.
Praveen Kumar: Master of swing- bowling is back in business and he can't get a better track to make his mark once again. Mohali has always a lot to offer to pacers and this can be a perfect track for Praveen to trouble the Chennai batting line-up. He is going to be the trump card for their success against the strong batting line-up of CSK.
Parwinder Awana: Awana bowled brilliantly in last match and his pace was his real strength and this time he would be looking to make the most of it. He can extract that awkward bounce which can be very effective against Suresh Raina and S Badrinath. It’s going to be a great contest between ball and bat when he will be bowling.
Manan Vohra: Vohra played a dynamic innings of 43 runs in last match against Pune warriors and played till the end. His aggressive intent will be very much required because they don’t have much fire power at number five and six which makes their lower-middle order look more fragile than CSK.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
MS Dhoni: Dhoni led his side very well in the last match and restricted the star batting line-up of Mumbai Indians to a low total. Though, his batters didn’t apply themselves well, he did his job very sincerely by scoring a terrific 51 runs. If Keiron Pollard would not had taken Dhoni's sensational catch across the boundary, then CSK would have easily won that thrilling match quite comfortably.
Ravindra Jadeja: Jadeja can turn the tables with his subtle variations and it would be nice to see him bowling his full quota of four overs. In last match, Dhoni under used him and made him bowl just two overs. He went wicket-less with an economy of six.
Murli Vijay: Vijay had scored 150+ on this track and would be looking to repeat that but in a much more aggressive way. He has that ability to shift his gears to accelerate the scoring rate. It is going to be a treat to watch when he will face Praveen Kumar on this track.
Suresh Raina: Raina started off well in the last match but threw away his wicket. In this earlier phase, he needs to deliver because he knows these conditions very well. He can be the trump card for the success of Chennai Super Kings.
Dirk Nannes: He dismissed the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, on the first ball that he faced and made sure that Mumbai Indians will not go off to a good start. The rich experience of T20 that he has can be more effective on this bouncy wicket of Mohali.