Chennai:

The batting unit has struggled throughout the tournament, and now they have a key batter missing in the form of Ruturaj Gaikwad. Also, their fielding has been an issue of concern in the tournament. Noor Ahmad and Khaleel Ahmed have bowled well so far for the franchise, and the team has struggled in their performances.

Chennai Super Kings (SCK), who are struggling at the bottom of the points table, will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in match no. 25 of the IPL 2025 on Friday. CSK will enter the contest under the leadership of MS Dhoni, as their skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out of the tournament with an elbow injury.

Pitch Report:

A surface which gets difficult for the batting as the game goes on. In the last two fixtures, CSK have found it difficult to chase and time their strokes perfectly.

Head to head:

Both the teams have played 30 fixtures amongst them, and CSK have 19 victories in their tally. On the other hand, KKR have won 10 matches, while 1 fixture has ended in a no result.

Key Battles to Watch Out For:

Shivam Dube vs Sunil Narine:

Dube has faced 28 balls against Narine and has scored 28 runs from it in the IPL. Interestingly, Narine has been able to restrict Dube from freeing his arms but hasn’t been able to dismiss him when the two faced against each other.

Quinton de Kock vs Khaleel Ahmed:

The South African opening batter has dominated Khaleel Ahmed, and these two are likely to be up against each other in the powerplay. Whenever the two have come across each other in the IPL, Quinton has scored 32 runs with a strike rate of 160, getting out only once.

Ajinkya Rahane vs Ravichandran Ashwin:

Rahane has managed to score only 49 runs from 45 deliveries against Ashwin and has been dismissed six times. Thus, if the two come up against each other, Ashwin will have the odds tilted in his favour.

Probable playing XI:

Chennai Super Kings: Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Rachin Ravindra, Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c&wk), R Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Matheesha Pathirana, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Choudhary

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Moeen Ali/Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora

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