CHENNAI: Buoyed with a creditable win over Delhi Capitals in their previous game Chennai Super Kings will look to keep the momentum when they take on a rejuvenated Lucknow Super Giants at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Sunday afternoon.
Although the Rishabh Pant-led side is languishing at the bottom of the table and chances of them making the playoffs are slim, they have the ability to play spoilsport and thus CSK must be cautious in their approach. S Sriram the spin bowling coach of CSK insisted that his team will not take any team lightly and give their best. "IPL is the best tournament in the world, so every team is very good irrespective of where they are in the table. We treat this as any other game and we will be ready with our strategy and do what is best keeping in mind the conditions," said Sriram.
On Saturday, the pitch square was covered fully due to persistent rain. Only in the evening the cover was removed for a while and then closed. With the weather too uncertain to an extent on Sunday, the pitch No 5 should have something for the bowlers as the moisture on the surface could help them. The surface (No 5) has some assistance for spinners, hence the duo of Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad could be the key for the hosts in the middle overs.
LSG, on the other hand, will look to skipper Rishabh Pant, who played an excellent cameo innings against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, to post a good score against CSK. Rishabh Pant has not played to potential and it appears that he is suffering from the weight of expectations. "It's a much-debated question that's been going around. Even the last time when I was asked about him I said he's just one innings away from getting his best. So, last match (against RCB) he proved, he played a fantastic, very match-defining innings, even though it might have been short, but he played a match-defining innings. It's just that we did not click fully well as a team," said Bharat Arun , bowling coach of Lucknow.
The visitors have bowlers like the experienced Moahmmad Shami, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav and Digvesh Rathi. Prince is in hot form and the talk of the town for dismissing former India captain Virat Kohli for a blob with an unplayable ball. Prince, a product of tennis-ball cricket, made his IPL debut last year. This season he has bowled better and has about 16 wickets in his bag.
"See, Prince, last year he showed glimpses of what he could achieve. So actually this year during the camps that we had, we discussed his strengths. See, under pressure, sometimes a bowler goes blank. But under pressure, the one who is confident of executing his strengths is going to be most successful in execution. So, we had a lot of one-on-one chats during the pre-season camps and things like that. And understood what is the best, what are their strengths. And we went about working perfectly on their strengths and on execution," said Arun. "Even we had a chat with Kohli and Kohli said 'how did he bowl that ball?' Because it's not very common. Mostly, outswing bowlers, after pitching, the ball swings in the air. After pitching, the ball tends to come in because of the position of the seam, how it lands. I don't think any bowler can bowl it at will, but if you are consistently working on your swing, it can be possible. And it was a dream ball," insisted Arun, adding that Prince had it in him to go to the next level and play for India.
LSG will be hoping that he continues the same in Chennai on Sunday