7.28pm There is a sea of Yellove at the Chepauk. But the fact remains that it is for CSK to make a move. They have just won one game so far in five games, and that includes two defeats at home. Will that change today? Out come the two CSK openers, Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway followed by the KKR XI. Vaibhav Arora has the new ball. He is over the wicket with a slip and a short third around.
7.20pm Thanks, Suds. What do you guys think about the team combinations? CSK, for me, still feel light on batting and Rachin and Conway will have to do the heavy lifting up top. Can Tripathi regain some form? He’s really looked out of sorts so far. KKR bringing in Moeen is probably to counter the left-hand heavy CSK batting order and seems to be a good ploy.
shams: “I just don’t understand why CSK still doesn’t want to hand a debut to Shaik Rasheed or to Andre Siddharth. CSK needs to rediscover itself and not play 2010s T20 cricket.”
Naga: “Since Ruturaj is ruled out for this season. Can CSK get injury replacement player for this season? ” Definitely
Kumar: “Nice to see Kamboj in the playing XI. He is an allrounder. Apart from his bowling he will strengthen CSK’s weak batting”
Okay, Ashish Pant is all set to take over. Let him know what you think of the team combinations.
7pm MS Dhoni was warming up with a bit of foot-volleys. He dons the CSK yellow and is now at the toss. Ajinkya Rahane is ready too. He calls heads, heads it is! KKR opt to bowl
Tough game to lose but it’s about improvement, says Rahane. He doesn’t think the pitch will change much. Moeen Ali comes in for Spencer Johnson is the only change for KKR
CSK were looking to bat first, Dhoni says with whistles blowing around the Chepauk. Not nice to miss a player like Gaikwad, he says. Praises his “authentic cricket shots” and adds that the team will miss him. “We won’t be a side that will hit five or six sixes in the powerplay, but we are a side that will hit more boundaries,” Dhoni says. Rahul Tripathi and Anshul Kamboj in for Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Choudhary
Chennai Super Kings XI: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Anshul Kamboj, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
Bench: Matheesha Pathirana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shaik Rasheed, Jamie Overton, Deepak Hooda
Kolkata Knight Riders XI: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 4 Venkatesh Iyer, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
Bench: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia
6:51pm Pitch report: Pitch No. 5, the one on which CSK won vs Mumbai Indians, in use tonight. It is a black-soil surface. The square boundaries are 68m and 65m with a fairly long straight hit at 80m. Matthew Hayden says it is a “slightly better wicket” that is hard and has a nice covering of the grass. The grass is well-rolled, too. He adds that with the humidity around, it will hold nicely before adding it is “not a 200-run wicket!” Deep Dasgupta adds that there was a fair bit of dew last evening.
Mustafa Moudi : “KKR Vs RCB being the Season Opener, RCB beating Chennai at Chepauk, Hyderabad Team at the Bottom of the Table and now MSD leading CSK – Not Sure this is 2025 or 2008 !!”
Anand: “Is it too late for MSD to weave his magic?” Never too late for magic, no? 😉
Srividya : “A captain is as good as his team..unable to see MSD turning CSK’s fortunes around. They just don’t have the right squad to win even 2 matches on the bounce , leave alone the playoffs!”
6:47pm Deivarayan Muthu is our man at Chepauk tonight: “Hello, another humid evening at Chepauk. Rahul Tripathi was the first player from CSK to arrive for pre-match training. He did a few visualising drills before inspecting the surface along with R Ashwin. Former Super King Moeen Ali is wheeling away at the adjacent pitch along with Sunil Narine. With at least four left-handers in CSK’s potential top six, Moeen might return to the KKR team in place of left-arm quick Spencer Johnson. The game is likely to be played on pitch no.5, a black-soil surface. Chepauk had dished out a red-soil pitch for CSK vs DC last Saturday. Some of the stands are empty as of now, but will likely get filled up, later in the evening, with Dhoni returning as captain.”
You can follow the CSK-KKR match LIVE in Hindi and also on the Live Report manned by Alagappan Muthu
6:45pm One of the things I looked forward to this season was R Ashwin’s return to CSK. His reunion with Ravindra Jadeja was one of the talking points, and when CSK picked Noor Ahmad at the auction, it made for a delicious menu. But the Ashwin-Jadeja reunion hasn’t been what most of us imagined it to be like. On ESPNcricinfo Timeout, PIyush Chawla felt Dhoni becoming the captain might just be the tonic for the spin-twins
6:40pm CSK’s opponents tonight are Kolkata Knight Riders, who also have three loses in five outings. Pitch-talk has dominated their home matches but they have their issues. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are yet to fire, even though homeboy Varun Chakravarthy has been unhittable. Deivarayan Muthu sets it up in his match preview. Deiva also wonders why Russell isn’t batting higher.
swarna: “@sudarshanan whom you think the better replacement for the Batter Ruturaj…my comments are not being published. But let me start the discussion today ..atleast eager to read the discussion tho cant participate” Looks like Rahul Tripathi could be the guy
6:30pm Thala is back! And so are we at the Chepauk after six days. CSK have a new captain at the helm after Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of IPL 2025 with a fractured elbow. The new captain is the old captain. The one who led CSK to five titles. MS Dhoni takes charge when the team has been languishing in the bottom half of the points table with four losses and just one win in five matches. They have never lost three games in a row at Chepauk, will Dhoni and CSK be able to turn the tide? Let’s find out. I am S Sudarshanan, and alongside Ashish Pant, will be your eyes and ears from all that happens at the MA Chidambaram Stadium this evening.
