Warne Vs Dhoni; Tactical warfare at Chepauk (Preview)

Both the teams didn’t start their IPL campaign in particularly good fashion losing matches which they could have won with ease. But, their fortunes have followed a somewhat similar pattern and at the half-way stage look set for a place in the last four. Chennai as well as Rajasthan go into this match on the back of three successive victories. Rajasthan are second only to Mumbai on the points table whereas Chennai are lurking behind them at the fourth place with a game at hand.

The match to be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium would be a battle between the two best captains of IPL, Shane Warne and MS Dhoni. Both of them are excellent leaders and have made the right moves at the right time. They surely have taken the captain’s contribution to the team cause to the next level and are ahead of the rest of the pack by some distance.

Chennai have so far defended almost everything they managed to put on the board courtesy some brilliance in the field coupled with Dhoni’s sharp captaincy. They have got some real live wires in the field- Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Michael Hussey etc. Even the most fancied batting line-ups have found scoring difficult against the stifling Chennai bowling. Doug Bollinger and R Ashwin have been the chief executors of that plan.

Their batting, however is the weak link despite some big names. The middle order fails to fire on a consistent basis but the bowling and fielding more than makes up for that. So Chennai in all likelihood would want to bat first and employ their time tested strategy of suffocating the opposition batsmen in the chase.

On the contrary, Rajasthan have followed a completely different plan. They prefer to chase and have won all their matches batting second. A weak bowling line-up has prompted them to follow these tactics and somehow the batting doesn’t click while setting a target for the opposition.

Although, Rajasthan’s campaign was not in a very good shape during the initial stages but the good showing at home has catapulted them to the second place at the points chart. Now is the tine they reproduce that form in away matches as well. Since, Chepauk has always favoured spinners; Warne will be looking for a match-winning performance. Johan Botha’s frugal off-breaks will also come handy. Overseas players-Shane Watson, Ross Taylor and Botha are the mainstay of the batting.

It will be a gripping contest between two well-matched sides and the two captains will surely have drawn up plans to outwit each other.

CHENNAI

Players who can make impact…

Albie Morkel….The South-African all rounder was retained by Chennai with the hope that his all round skills come good. Till last game the team’s decision seemed to have backfired but the big hitting player justified the faith as his last over fireworks won the match for his team.

R Ashwin….Talk of the dusty Chennai pitch and R Ashwin’s carrom ball comes into mind. He has foxed even the best in the business with the ball that spins the other way. The Rajasthan batsmen will have to be alert to avoid a collapse at the hands of Ashwin.

SQUAD

Abhinav Mukund, Albie Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ganapathi Vignesh, George Bailey, Joginder Sharma, K Vasudevadas, Michael Hussey, MS Dhoni (c)(wk), Murali Vijay, Nuwan Kulasekara, R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Scott Styris, Shadab Jakati ,Srikkanth Anirudha, Sudeep Tyagi, Suraj Randiv, Suresh Raina, Tim Southee, Wriddhiman Saha,Yo Mahesh.

RAJASTHAN

Players who can make impact…

Ross Taylor…He is arguably the best exponent of slog-sweep. And, no matter where the ball is pitched the only destination is the arc between square leg and deep midwicket. Chepauk may be a big ground but no boundary is big enough for a Ross Taylor swipe, ask Shoaib Akhter and company.

Rahul Dravid….’Mr. Dependable’ of the Indian cricket team in the longer version is proving his mettle even in the T20 format. He brings some stability at the top for the fragile Rajasthan batting and allows Watson to play freely.

SQUAD

Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Amit Singh, Ankeet Chavan, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dinesh Salunkhe, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Johan Botha, Nayan Doshi, Pankaj Singh, Pinal Shah, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Samad Fallah, Shane Warne (c), Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Sumit Narwal, Swapnil Asnodkar.