Cheni, Rajasthan look to cement positions

Cheni, May 9: League leaders Cheni Super Kings (CSK) and second placed Rajasthan Royals will look to cement their positions in order to qualify for the play-offs of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when they meet each other in an exciting encounter at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday.

With seven wins from 11 matches, two-time champions Cheni are on top of the points table, while Rajasthan also have 14 points but the iugural edition champions have played one extra game.

However, both the teams have suffered defeats in their previous games and they will look to acquire some amount of consistency as the Twenty-20 cricket tourment nears its end.

While Cheni lost to Mumbai Indians by six wickets on Friday, Rajasthan fell short by seven runs in pursuit of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 201/4 on Thursday.

Cheni’s over-reliance on the top three batsmen — Dwayne Bravo, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Rai — was exposed by Mumbai, who restricted the home team to 158/5.

And in reply, Mumbai cantered home with not much difficulty, becoming the first visiting team to taste a win at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in this season.

Having registered a comfortable eight-wicket victory in their previous meeting on April 19, Rajasthan will hope to continue what they and Mumbai did to halt the rampaging Cheni outfit.

Rajasthan, too, have their own problems in death bowling even if Tim Southee, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, James Faulkner are bowling their hearts out, picking up wickets at crucial moments.

On the other hand, Cheni boast of two excellent medium pace bowlers in their ranks who have been simply brilliant in this season. IANS