CHENNAI: There are two ways to look at Chennai Super Kings' win over Kings XI Punjab on Sunday. A: Flash in the pan. B: A win Dhoni & Co. were desperately seeking. Wednesday's clash against Kolkata Knight Riders at Abu Dhabi will offer further clues in this regard.
But their issues in the middle-order remain. Though Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson papered over their cracks in Dubai, it exists. In some ways, returning to Abu Dhabi, the venue where they opened the campaign with a win over Mumbai Indians, should suit Chennai.
Among the three venues, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium is the only one which hasn't seen a total of 200 yet with 168 being the average first innings total (before Tuesday's match against Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals).
It is these sort of totals that Chennai won't mind chasing or would be comfortable defending as they have lacked the firepower in the middle-order to go for big totals.
Though there are questions over Kedar Jadhav's place in the side, it is hard to see the Super Kings looking beyond him as they have only openers — Murali Vijay and Ruturaj Gaikwad — to choose from. While Chennai can always go for Gaikwad, they still have second thoughts over his ability to bat in the middle-order, a position he has seldom batted in his career.
Also sending him at the top will disturb the Du Plessis-Watson combo. Chennai are unlikely to make any changes to their bowling line-up unless there are any fitness issues.
Against Punjab, they played without two of their frontline pacers, preferring to rely on Sam Curran and the slow-cutters of Dwayne Bravo. That should continue on a wicket where taking the pace off the ball could be handy.
The story is not different in the Kolkata camp. They too are coming into the match with two wins and are still far from a settled side. Kolkata are yet to see their captain Dinesh Karthik amongst the runs as calls are already being made to make Eoin Morgan the skipper.
Their spinners Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav have appeared off-colour with Varun Chakravarthy proving a more reliable option so far. Kolkata could not have asked for a better opposition than Chennai to meet at this stage.