Unbeaten Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will look to continue their winning spree in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as they arrive in Chennai to challenge Ruturaj Gaikwad’s Yellow Army at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday. The defending champions, Chennai Super Kings, return home in search of redemption following back-to-back losses. They will look to bounce back when an MS Dhoni-inspired CSK take the field in front of the home crowd
KKR have been destructive with the willow in hand having put up over 650 runs in the season so far. Kolkata openers Phil Salt and Sunil Naraine pose a threat to any bowling attack up the order and CSK would look to contain the explosive duo early in the innings.
Ahead of the mouth-watering fixture in Madras, CSK bowling consultant Eric Simons expressed that the team has had conversations around trying to rein in the flow of runs.
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“We got a round of discussion out of the way in our last practice session. So we spent some time talking about that,” Simons began.
“We watched some videos and came up with certain plans according to the analysis. So the simple answer is yes, we have had conversations around it,” he revealed.
He added that the ongoing instalment of the cash-rich tournament is beginning to take shape and certain patterns have been revealed in the process. Simons expressed that the five-time champions would try to take stock of the motif and tackle it accordingly.
“The tournament is starting to get a pattern now and we can tap into the pattern and make sure you’re ahead of it,” he asserted.
Chennai surrendered both their away games leading up to the KKR fixture, after having opened the tournament with two home wins. In their previous outing in Hyderabad against SRH, the side from Tamil Nadu missed the services of Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana due to a niggle.
“The availability of the pacer for the encounter against touring KKR will be subject to the green flag from the team physio,” Simons said.
“It is a long tournament and we want to be conservative with our decision-making around him. Whether he plays the next game or not will be determined by the physio,” he added.
The South African expressed that caution needs to be practised to safeguard the pacer’s physical integrity throughout the tournament.
“It shouldn’t be the case of risking four games for the sake of playing one. But he is coming along very well,” the 62-year-old said.
However, the availability of Mustafizur Rahman is still uncertain and the bowling consultant opined that a team has to be prepared with contingency measures for such situations.
“As a team, you have to prepare for eventualities and that is what the IPL is,” he concluded.
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