Now It's Sudden death time, do or die situation. This is the stage where there are no second option, no scope for a comeback. Good 40 overs and you are through or a bad day and your dream comes to a halt. The battles between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab in the second semifinal of the Indian Premier League and to use a cliché, this is really anyone's match. Making predictions will be foolhardy. Only thing we can say is the game likely to go d
own to the wire.We may see a dramatic end,may be a last ball finishes.But the final still lies ahead on Sunday. Let's quickly examine what we can expect in the second semifinal. It is tempting to see how the teams have fared against each other at the league stage. The Chennai Super Kings defeated the Kings XI Punjab, both at home and away by margins of 18 runs and 33 runs.Kings XI Punjab were second in the table with a win loss record of 10-4 and 20 points. The Chennai team's record has been more variable - eight wins and six losses for a tally of 16 points.
Except for Stephen Fleming who has gone back to New Zealand, all others will be seen in the semifina. The former New Zealand captain has enjoyed moderate success and will certainly be missed, specially for a solid foundation at the top of the order with Parthiv Patel. But the Chennai team has good middle-order batting line-up in which skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina have been outstanding. Albie Morkel's all- round performance has helped his team on numerous occasions and Chennai Super Kings have been well-ballanced bowling department.Besides Morkel, Laxmipathy Balaji, Manpreet Gony and Makhaya Ntini have been among the wickets while Muthiah Muralitharan's economy rate, if not his wicket-taking ability, has been admirable.Still they must improve their bowling to counter in-form Marsh,Mahela,Sangakara & Yuvi.
But Chennai Super Kings will be up against a team that has won five of its last six matches, including one against top of the table Rajasthan Royals. That will be an encouraging factor for the Mohali outfit even if Chennai will be encouraged by their past record against the same opponents. Kings XI have been well-served in both batting and bowling and in Shaun Marsh, they have the highest run-getter in the competition. A number of hard-hitting batsmens are there like Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara, Luke Pomersbach and James Hopes.These are major plus point for them. The bowling has matched the exploits of the batting and Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, VRV Singh and Piyush Chawla are all high on the leading wicket-taker's list, even if the economy rate of the last three can do with improvement.
Again I like to say that it's a different ball game and everything will depends on the performance in those 40 overs. As per previous performance Kinghs XI is slightly ahead but we can't ignore M.S.Dhoni's team & his leadership.So its anyone's game.
Hawkeye / Chivach Sports