IPL 2022 SRH vs CSK Preview - Last chance saloon for defending champions

Key match stats SRH vs CSK

Pitch Stats – Maharashtra Stadium

Average first innings score: 170
Average first innings winning score: 175
Average powerplay score: 45
Win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 63% / 37%

Team form SRH vs CSK
SRH – LWWWW
CSK – LWLWL
Recent meetings: SRH won by 8 wickets

SRH vs CSK Preview

The Sunrisers' incredible winning streak was ended in spectacular fashion by league leaders Gujarat Titans in what was arguably the best game of the tournament so far.

Post-match Kane Williamson spoke about the many positives that his side could take from the match and chief amongst those will no doubt be the fact that they set a good target in what was their first attempt at batting first in IPL 2022 only for some last over drama to cost them the match.

That experience could be crucial here in Pune where there is a strong correlation for sides batting first to win, no doubt aided by the fact that dew tends to play a far less significant role at this venue than it has at others. In fact, it is only the bottom 2 sides in CSK and Mumbai Indians that have failed to defend totals on this pitch so far in IPL 2022.

Venue	Win % batting first	Win % batting second
Maharashtra	67%	33%
Wankhede	45%	55%
DY Patil	43%	57%
Brabourne	36%	64%

The ground in Pune is so far the only one in IPL 2022 to favour sides batting first

Over the last couple of matches we've also seen the wicket become a little tacky and 2 paced as the sheer volume of cricket being played at the 4 grounds finally begins to catch-up with the pitches in use.

CSK will need to overcome the challenge of one of the hottest properties in world cricket at the moment in the form of Umran Malik whose 5 wickets against Gujarat Titans, all bowled, was a feet to behold.

There is a refreshing simplicity to Umran Malik's approach to cricket - bowl fast and hit the stumps. It's a pretty good mantra for any young cricketer to follow and it's certainly paying dividends for him.

As for CSK, who knows what is going on in that dressing room?

A last-minute change of captain before the season starts and then the change back mid-way through. That is some exercise in futility from the defending champions who continue to be well off the pace this season with a series of mistakes against PBKS leading to yet another defeat.

The transition into a post-Dhoni era was always likely to be a difficult one for CSK and you can only assume that the appointment of Jadeja at the start of the season was designed to ensure a sufficient handover period. At the same time, this Chennai team is so synonymous with their former and now once again current captain that any switch in leadership was always going to be difficult and perhaps CSK could have used this year's super auction to truly start from scratch in building a new dynasty rather than relying too heavily on the crumbling foundations of the previous one.

As mentioned in my previous blog on MI, CSK will no doubt benefit from an end to bio-bubbles and neutral venues which the BCCI has already hinted at for next season. They are incredibly dominant at their home ground the Chepauk Stadium and will no doubt be very keen to get back to playing 50% of their matches on that surface.

As for this season, this game surely represents a last chance saloon for them to begin some form of miracle comeback and qualify for the playoffs. I mentioned in a blog at the beginning of the week, there were enough significant matches over the last 7 days to really get a sense of which sides would go into the final third of this IPL season with a realistic chance of reaching the playoffs.

At the moment it looks like CSK won't be one of those sides but could the re-appointment of Dhoni act as a catalyst for something special? Let's see...

SRH vs CSK head to head

CSK bowling vs SRH batting

SRH return to a venue which their top order do not have fond memories of after recording the worst powerplay score in the history of the IPL just over 4 weeks ago on this very pitch vs Rajasthan Royals.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then but young Mukesh Choudhary who has been one of the bright points for CSK this year will hope to re-open some of those wounds early on today.

Williamson career T20 stats vs left-arm pace

He has already dismissed Kane Williamson in the reverse fixture earlier in the season with the Sunrisers' captain scoring just a solitary run from the 8 balls he faced from Choudhary and left-arm seam is generally a match-up that works against the Kiwi opener as the stats above show. Conversely Williamson averages 36 against right-arm pace and strikes at 135 while against slow bowling his average shoots up to 48!

CSK have gone into recent matches with 2 left-arm spinners which could certainly prove problematic for a couple of the SRH batsmen not least of all Rahul Tripathi. He has a career average of just 12.3 vs left-arm spin and has already been dismissed a couple of times in previous matches by Ravi Jadeja who will doubtless be looking for a big performance now that he is free of the captaincy.

Jadeja vs Tripathi T20 head to head

Meanwhile at the death it looks likely to be a clash between the evergreen Dwayne Bravo who has already taken 9 wickets during the final 5 overs of matches this season and Aiden Markram who has scored 109 runs at a strike rate of 222.4 during the same period, the best record of any batsman to have faced more than 5 overs of bowling during that phase of the game this season.

Bravo vs Markram T20 head to head

The 2 have played a fair bit of cricket against one another over the last 12 months for their respective national teams and so far the South African has found the West Indian hard to get away.

SRH bowling vs CSK batting

Chennai's problems with the bat this season stem from the number of wickets that they lose in the powerplay. On average they lose 2 during the first 6 overs with only KKR having a comparatively poor record in IPL 2022.

Again, it will be the match-up between the CSK openers and SRH's left-arm options that will be key in this match. Natarajan dismissed Gaikwad in the earlier match between these 2 sides to further underline the young opener's weakness against left-arm fast medium bowling. He'll likely have 8 overs of it to contend with in this match...

Gaikwad T20 career stats vs left-arm pace

The man who might be best placed to combat that threat is Jadeja who has a good record against left-armers in general and in particular against Natarjan whose return to form for SRH after missing last season through injury has been one of the key reasons behind their rise to challenge for the playoffs.

Natarajan vs Jadeja T20 head to head

Yesterday we saw Sky pass the landmark of 100 runs scored off Ravi Ashwin without ever having been dismissed by that particular bowler and today we could see MS Dhoni achieve a similar feat against fellow IPL veteran Bhuvi with the new/old CSK captain just one mighty blow away from bringing up a century of runs against his former national teammate in T20 cricket.

Bhuvi vs Dhoni T20 head to head

All stats used in this blog are from my own database. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images which are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free