Hard done take on hardly done

Match facts

Sunday, May 4 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The Chennai Super Kings IPL party was brought to a screeching halt on Friday night as the Delhi Daredevils bumped them off the top of the points table with an eight-wicket win. Now Chennai will hope they can end the Rajasthan Royals' four-match winning streak and find their way back to the top. The departure of Australians and New Zealanders for upcoming Test series has affected most of the sides. While Chennai missed the power and experience of Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram against Delhi, the Kolkata Knight Riders are struggling to fill the void created by the exits of Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum. Rajasthan are the only team not to endure any painful farewells and they can use this to strike hard before Chennai have had a chance to regroup.

Watch out for ...

... Mahendra Singh Dhoni pitting his wits against Shane Warne. In the last year, Dhoni has led India to inspiring wins at the ICC World Twenty20 and tri-nation CB Series in Australia. Some of his inspired decisions include making Yusuf Pathan open and giving Joginder Sharma the last over in the Twenty20 final against Pakistan. Warne's captaincy at the IPL, where he leads a team bereft of big names, has been inspiring to say the least. He has been backed by his bowlers and fielders and gambled on an attacking young batsman in Swapnil Asnodkar, who hit a fluent half-century on debut. It'll be interesting to see how the two motivate their sides against the other. Their personal contest - Dhoni the batsman v Warne the bowler - should be an equally absorbing one.

Team news

Young Asnodkar's half-century last week means he will again open the innings with Graeme Smith, who had a bad game after two good ones. There are no foreseeable changes for Rajasthan's line-up given that they've won four matches in a row. An all-round display worked admirably in their last game and with Sohail Tanvir coming back well from a poor debut, he may still keep his place ahead of Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Rajasthan: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Swapnil Asnodkar, 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 8 Shane Warne (capt), 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

Chennai's depleted outfit struggled against Delhi but without any other overseas players to pick from they will most certainly stick to the same players from the last game. Stephen Fleming will get an extended run as opener in Hayden's absence while Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini and Muttiah Muralitharan will stay on.

Chennai: (probable) 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Stephen Fleming, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 5 S Badrinath, 6 Albie Morkel, 7, S Vidyut, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Manpreet Gony, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

IPL form

Chennai Super Kings: WWWL
Rajasthan Royals: WWWW

Stats and trivia

Chennai's Suresh Raina has the best individual strike-rate for an IPL innngs: his 32 against Punjab came from just 13 balls at 246.15.

Quotes

"We don't want to be the fourth team in the semifinal. We are looking for fifth win and one more will place us comfortable. Then we would like to carry on for as many more wins as possible. Our aim is to remain at the top."
Darren Berry, Rajasthan's coaching director, hopes they come on hard against a depleted Chennai side.