Chennai Super Kings vs Yorkshire – Champions League T20 – Match Preview
Having failed to secure a place in the semi-final, Chennai Super Kings and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yorkshire-c867 will look to keep their respective reputations intact when they meet in the Champions League T20’s dead-rubber today, October 22, 2012, at Kingsmead, Durban.
Both teams will need to go through the agony of playing a game of T20 cricket, which offers nothing but a chance to salvage some much needed self-respect. The Super Kings were among the fancied IPL franchises, largely owing to their own experience of grinding out results under demanding circumstances.
They have the uncanny knack of starting tournaments slowly before finally getting into their groove. However, no-showings in the opening two games had left them plenty to do and with other teams getting ahead of them in the early stage, rain and various other factors eventually came in the way of any efforts for improvement.
The CL T20 has been criticized for favouring the IPL franchises, but it has hardly panned out this way, with rain proving to be decisive on more than one occasion. Regardless of that fact, CSK still managed to motivate themselves against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820 Indians in their penultimate group game and will look for a similar outing against the bottom side Yorkshire.
Their narrow-win got the tournament going, and their absence from the knock-out stage could prove detrimental in terms of attracting a substantial crowd. Their win was again orchestrated by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Faf-du-Plessis-c1427, whose local knowledge has brought desired results as he played with freedom, and attacked the bowlers at will. While that innings counted as little on a collective basis, du Plessis will be pleased to be among the consistent run-getter in the tournament and will hope that it opens a regular place for him on the national team’s roster.
The bowling has been a major letdown and despite it showing signs of coming back to form, there still remains plenty of room for improvement. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 very little to manoeuvre with.
Expect a couple of chances to the final XI, with the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KMDN-Kulasekara-c1802 in line to make an appearance.
Yorkshire entered the tournament proper as the least fancied side, and indeed their showings have allowed them to keep their tag intact. They were routed on a lowly 96 against Sydney Sixers, and offered little against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lions-c808 when so much was expected of them, at least by CSK and the Indians.
Injuries have indeed hindered their progress but given the fact that this will be their last appearance in the CL T20, they will look to go on a high. The English domestic clubs will take no further part in the subsequent events according to ECB, and given their limited showings this year, they will hardly be missed.
Their lineup was tinkered with in the previous game in order to fill the void left by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashraf-c46397 after both picked up injuries during the rain-abandoned match against the Mumbai Indians. If deemed fit, both are likely to slot in.
The pitch at Durban will again offer bounce and carry, so batting second could prove feasible. Rain has haunted the tournament, and the forecast looks bleak, for the time being at least.
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