IPL 2018, Match 12: KXIP vs CSK - Preview, head-to-head, pitch report, key stats
Kings XI Punjab are up against a Chennai Super Kings team which is coming on the back of two wins, though close ones at that. The unavailability of players due to various reasons has irked the CSK team, which prompted a quote from captain Dhoni, who stated: "Every game one player is getting injured. By that calculation, we will not have 14 players at the end of the league."
Meanwhile, Kings XI had to suffer a loss in their previous encounter against RCB. The team returns to Mohali with the hope of restoring the form with which they started their Indian Premier League 2018 campaign.
Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings Match 12 Details:
Match Date: 15 April 2018, Sunday
Match Timing: 20:00 IST, 14:30 GMT
Match Venue: Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, India
Expected Crowd Turnout: The game is expected to be a house-full with a crowd turnout of 30,000.
Weather
With no forecast of rain, a full game is expected. The humidity level will be as low as 29%. Thus, it is expected to be a pleasant evening in Mohali. Dew will play a major part in the match as well.
Pitch report
During the game against Daredevils, a slightly sluggish wicket was on offer which put the impetus on capitalizing the new ball. However, that was a late afternoon game and it remains to be seen how the pitch behaves during the night, with the dew factor also likely to come into play.
Head-to-head
KXIP 6 - CSK 10. CSK have a good edge over KXIP with 10 wins under their belt in comparison to 6 wins for the latter.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) IPL 2018 Squad:
Lokesh Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Chris Gayle, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Barinder Sran, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Pradeep Sahu, and Manzoor Dar.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) IPL 2018 Squad:
MS Dhoni (c & wk), Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Faf du Plessis, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Karn Sharma, N Jagadeesan, and David Willey.
Stats and numbers
2 – Harbhajan Singh needs two more wickets to surpass Piyush Chawla on the list most wickets in the history of IPL. Scalping these two wickets, Harbhajan Singh will acquire the third position in the list of most IPL wickets.
2 – The number of wickets required by Imran Tahir to reach 50 IPL wickets.
3 – MS Dhoni needs to effect three more stumpings to surpass Robin Uthappa on the list of most IPL stumpings.
23 – Ambati Rayadu requires 23 more runs to complete the feat of 2500 IPL runs. He will become the 14th Indian in the history of IPL to score 2500 or more runs.
36 – MS Dhoni is just 36 runs behind to surpass Chris Gayle on the list of most IPL runs. MS Dhoni will become the eight highest run-scorer in the history of IPL.