Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) will meet for the qualifier 1 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Winner will go to the final and the loser will play the qualifier 2.
Gujarat end the league stages in first position while Chennai ends with the 2nd position. Titans will have to put more effort as the winning record of CSK in Chennai is too high as compared to other teams in terms of home advantage (40 wins in 56 matches).
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (CSK):
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CSK both openers gave a solid start to their team. Devon Conway always performs and gives valuable contributions to the team. He made 585 runs with an impressive average of 53.18. Ruturaj Gaikwad is looking in sublime form. He already mentioned before the season started that he wants to win the trophy for MS Dhoni. Till now he scored 504 runs.
Next comes Ajinkya Rahane, who started the season with some big hits and no one even knows that Rahane got so much potential to show his destruction like this with the bat. Due to his consistent performance, he was selected for the WTC final against Australia. Shivam Dube who has a lot of potential of hard hitting couldn’t get his correct form during the start of the season but later on after finding his rhythm he becomes a very huge asset for the team and scoring runs like a bullet in the middle and death overs. He contributed 385 runs with 3 half centuries.
Ambati Rayudu is the only batsman from the team whose contribution in this season was pretty less. Having a great record in IPL, he is assumed to be the most consistent batsman in the middle overs but he fails to carry his form. He made only 122 runs in 10 innings. Moeen Ali also did not show any extraordinary performance in this season and didn’t get much chance to bat on due to coming in the lower order.
MS Dhoni was mostly seen coming to bat when only 2-3 overs were remaining and as soon as he came to the ground, fans started cheering for “MAHI”. And he also greeted them with 4’s and 6’s. This season he didn’t score much but he had an impressive strike rate of 190.74. Ravindra Jadeja shows some hard hitting against DC, but he needs to be more consistent with the bat as teams him the most during the death overs along with Dhoni.
Tushar Despande, new finder from Dhoni proves him right and shows his brilliancy of bowling. Till now he grabbed 20 wickets in the season. Despite taking wickets in most of the matches , he was seen as expensive in his spells but later on he bowls with a better line and length and opponents find it difficult to play against him.
Deepak Chahar faces some difficulty since he was injured at the start of the season and after returning he was little expensive in his spells. In the last few matches he got his rhythm back and took wickets with economical spells. Matheesha Pathirana also shows his brilliancy in the death overs. He took 15 wickets with 19.33 average, highest among the CSK bowlers.
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Ravindra Jadeja didn’t show his class in batting but his wicket taking ability helped the team to winning the match. He took 17 wickets till now in the season with an economy of 7.65. Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana also helped him in the spin department and both of them took 9 wickets each till now.
GUJARAT TITANS (GT):
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GT got a brilliant opener in the form of Shubman Gill. Gill scores back to back two centuries against SRH and RCB. He is looking great this season and he is knocking the ball beautifully. Till now he made 680 runs with an average of 56.67 and is 2nd in the list of orange cap. In his pocket, minimum 2 more matches are there and he definitely will try to clinch the orange cap from Faf du Plessis (730 runs), just requiring 50 more runs. Wridhhiman Saha form in this season goes up and down. He was seen struggling a little in the initial overs but when he sets down then he can easily show his destruction.
Hardik Pandya manages the team environment very well. He is mostly seen cool and composed on the pitch and always motivates his players. Despite not getting so many runs in this season, he regularly practices harder and harder. He was also getting injured in between the matches but he recovered immediately. In the last few matches he was seen providing some good knocks from his side.
Vijay Shankar in this season was seen batting at some different level. His beast form is truly a blessing for GT. Sai Sudharsan got injured after showing some hard hitting skills but now he is fit and also played the matches. This youngster has already hit 2 half centuries this season and a lot of runs seen in upcoming matches from his side.
David Miller is one of the best finishers not only from GT but also in the world. Still he didn’t hit any half century this season but his valuable contribution to the team always added runs to the scoreboard like a bullet train. He scored 255 runs this season till now. Rahul Tewatia also showed some fierceful batting in the death overs. Rashid Khan’s knock of 81 runs against MI where he hits 10 sixes is highest among the GT batsmen in a single match.
Titans bowlers are one of the best bowlers in this season. 3 in the top 10 bowlers in the purple cap list are from Gujarat only. Mohd Shami is leading the chart with 24 wickets in his pockets and economy being 7.71. Mohit Sharma gave full support to him and took 17 wickets till now. He has the best average (16.71) among all the bowlers in Gujarat. Joshua Little joined the team again after completing his national duty. Yash Dayal who missed the matches due to injury is available and getting some early wickets.
Rashid Khan who matches the same number of wickets as Shami and he also had 24 wickets in the season and is currently 2nd in the list. His economical spells always find the opponent difficult to play. Noor Ahmed who belongs from the same national team of Rashid (Afghanistan) providing some critical wickets in between the overs.
HEAD TO HEAD ANALYSIS:
Matches- 3
| GT | CSK | |
| WON | 3 | 0 |
| HIGHEST SCORE | 182 | 178 |
| LOWEST SCORE | 137 | 133 |
Pitch Analysis:
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai will witness the Qualifier 1. In this pitch batters find some easy runs early on. Pacers get more benefits than spinners, but slow bowlers can turn things around as seen in previous matches. CSK had a great winning record here, winning 40 in 56 matches.
Playing 11 for CSK:
Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Deepak Chahar, Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Despande, Maheesh Theekshana.
Playing 11 for GT:
Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Hardik Pandya ©, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohd Shami, Mohit Sharma, Yash Dayal, Noor Ahmed.
Probable top 11 performers for the match:
Wridhhiman Saha, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Mohd Shami, Rashid Khan, Matheesha Pathirana.