The 12th match of the IPL 2019 will see the unbeaten Chennai Super Kings take on Rajasthan Royals who are still looking for their first win. CSK have defeated RCB and DC, while RR has lost to KXIP and SRH.
Dhoni has led his team of experienced players well and more than captaining them, his man management skills have come to forth in this edition of IPL. He has shown faith in his players and backed them to the hilt. They have been helped by the form of their spinners Harbhajan and Tahir, who have picked wickets both at the top and in middle overs. CSK batting has been satisfactory in both games and even Jadhav and Dhoni got some work done against DC when the team needed them to take them to the win.
RR, on the other hand, can only blame themselves for losing the game against KXIP after the Ashwin- Buttler Mankad incident and then losing wickets in a heap. Against SRH, they were blown away by the amazing batting of David Warner, exposing a chink in their fast bowling attack, which was torn to shreds. RR team management needs to look at the team combination, as players like Rahu Tripathi are been wasted down the order and instead another all-rounder might help their cause. Also, their Indian fast bowling contingent has been disappointing in both games, something to get right before they face someone like CSK.
Rahane has a ton of work to do before the toss, while MS Dhoni will seemingly back the side that has been winning, without tinkering much with the team combination.
Toss: Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Playing XIs:
CSK: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (w/c), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Imran Tahir.
RR: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Jos Buttler (w), Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni.
