Chennai look to redeem some pride by Asher Wilson

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Scorecard:	Chennai Super Kings v Yorkshire
Event:	Champions League 2012/13

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DateLine: 22nd October 2012

 

Chennai Super Kings v Yorkshire
Match Preview
Champions League 2012

 

Already out of the semi-final race, IPL heavyweights Chennai Super Kings would look to redeem some pride and end their campaign on a high when they take on a less-formidable Yorkshire in their final Group B match of the Champions League Twenty20 today. CSK, however, managed to register a win over Mumbai, which though came a little too late.

 

The qualification from Group B has already been decided and with neither of these two sides able to progress to the semi-finals, this is effectively a dead rubber. However, Chennai have shown that they are just starting to hit their best form while Yorkshire continue to struggle after a series of injuries.

 

Faf du Plessis and Murali Vijay are in prolific form and will be expected to provide a blazing start one last time in 2012. Suresh Raina missed out in the last game but can also do a lot of damage. His fielding has been exceptional in the last two games. However, Chennai have a tendency to lose their way in the middle, thus forcing the lower order to do a recovery job rather than strengthen their innings. We saw the same in their last two matches. Thus if they can instead replicate their performance from their last match against Mumbai Indians, there is no reason why Chennai can't post a huge total against a weak Yorkshire bowling attack.

 

Ben Hilfenhaus has been Chennai’s best bowler with the ball and he would have prior experience bowling to Jaques who is a former Australian Test opener. Hilfenhaus has 3 wickets at 5.90 runs per over which any bowler would be happy with.

 

Bowling, however, remains a concern for Chennai as their slow bowlers were taken for a ride by Mumbai batsmen last time around but their pace department is in the safe hands.

 

Yorkshire have been hit by a spate of injuries and their squad depleted withdrawals but Andrew Gale’s side did put up a brave performance against the Lions on Saturday.

 

For Yorkshire, openers Phil Jacques and Andrew Gale finally put together a reasonable partnership against the Lions. Phil Jacques has been one of the better players from Yorkshire with the bat which is the area Yorkshire have struggled in the most this tournament. Jaques has managed 52 runs from his 2 innings in the main draw which isn’t too bad but he would like to transfer that start into a big score. Rashid may have struggled with the bat in this tournament so far but he made some useful contributions at the qualifying stage so we can expect him to blast in this match as well.

 

Ryan Sidebottom is the best bowler for Yorkshire but he has been hit by injury in the last game and is unlikely to play in this match. The better option could be Rashid while Joe Root, who is a part time off spinner but opens the bowling, may be worth considering to shackle the Chennai's batting line-up.

 

It’s looking increasingly unlikely that we will see a hundred scored in this season’s Champions League but who knows with no pressure of qualifying for semi's we may witness one will arrive in this game from a batsman on either side.

 

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Michael Hussey, Doug Bollinger, M Vijay, Faf du Plessis, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekara, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Yo Mahesh, S Badrinath.

 

Yorkshire: Andrew Gale, Moin Ashraf, Azeem Rafiq, Gary Ballance, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Dan Hodgson, Phil Jaques, Adam Lyth, David Miller, Steven Patterson, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ryan Sidebottom, Iain Wardlaw, Eddie Wilson.

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
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