The Chennai Super Kings will play the 24rd game of the Indian Premier League against the Pune Warriors at M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
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A Historical View:
The Super Kings have not made a great start to their IPL campaign this year despite the thrilling and close win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore. They went down to the Pune Warriors in their very next game and now have two wins from five games.
Now they have the chance to not only notch up a win that will take them to joint-second position in the points table but also help avenge their loss to Pune. They play Pune again, against whom they have won two of the three matches played in the history.
The Pune Warriors have begun well to win three of their five games but will know that the Super Kings will come hard at them at home.
Probable selection:
Pune Warriors lost their game to the Royal Challengers in what turned out to be a photo-finish. Despite needing to defend almost 20 runs in the last over, Ashish Nehra failed in his task and left many questioning captain Sourav Ganguly’s wisdom of bowling him the last over.
There may not be too many changes to their side, but Ganguly may be tempted to get in Murali Kartik on a spinning track, leaving out a fast bowler. Ashok Dinda was seen struggling with a side strain in their previous game and he could well be given a break.
The Super Kings will need to take the decision to allow Murali Vijay a rest after his five successive failures. With Faff du Plessis batting the way he is, it makes sense for the Super Kings to play someone more likely to rotate the strike back to the South African than Vijay, who is clearly struggling with form.
Albie Morkel will also miss out after he had to rush back to South Africa to attend the funeral of his close friend and Doug Bollinger may get a chance.
IPL 2012 live options:
You can watch the Chennai Super Kings v Pune Warriors IPL 2012 match
live online here. You can also watch the Chennai Super Kings v Pune Warriors IPL 2012 live on Sony’s Set Max in India and ITV4 in the UK from 2.30 pm GMT on April 19.