Playing XI
Venue Insights (Abu Dhabi)
Highest Team Total: 206/4 By Punjab Against Chennai In 2014.
Lowest Team Total: 70/10 By Bangalore Against Rajasthan In 2014.
Highest Individual Score: 95 By Glenn Maxwell (Punjab) Against Chennai In 2014.
Best Bowling Figures: 4/20 By Sunil Narine (Kolkata) Against Mumbai In 2014.
Highest Partnership: 131 By Jacques Kallis And Manish Pandey (Kolkata) For 2nd Wicket Against Mumbai In 2014.
Win Rate Batting First: 60% (6 Won; 4 Lost)
Top Fantasy Picks - All Rounders
Ben Stokes has scored 130 runs against Chennai at an average of 32.50 (his best against current IPL opponents) and also picked up 3 wickets in these 4 matches.
Tewatia is one of the 2 all rounders to have taken more than 5 wickets and scored more than 200 runs this IPL season (222 runs and 6 wickets for him)
Sam Curran might have scored a duck in the last match, but he is a much better batter than that. In his 2 IPL matches against Rajasthan he has scored 17 runs and taken 5 wickets.
Top Fantasy Picks - Bowlers
With 12 wickets, Archer is the joint 5th leading wicket taker of this season. He has 6 wickets in 4 matches against Chennai. Also, at Abu Dhabi he has scored 40 runs this season in 2 matches, thus can be handy with the bat too.
Shardul Thakur is on a wickets spree in his last 16 T20 matches (total 27 wickets in these). This season itself in 6 matches he has picked up 9 wickets.
After starting well initially, his performance dipped in the middle but then came back with a 2/18 against Delhi in the last match. His performances against Rajasthan in the IPL: 1/31, 2/33, 2/19 and 2/30.
Top Fantasy Picks - Batsmen & Keepers
After two back to back single digit scores, Faf gained his golden touch back with a fine half century against Delhi in the last match. With 365 runs, he is 3rd in the list of Orange cap.
Jos has been relatively quiet this season, but that also means a big one is about to come and might as well be against Chennai given his record against them.
Watson is looking in touch with scores of 36, 42, 14, 50 and 83* in the last 5 matches. His record against Rajasthan: 191 runs in 5 matches (including 1 century)
Probable XI
Chennai : Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, MS Dhoni (c)(wk), Sam Curran, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.
Rajasthan : Jos Buttler (wk),Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith (c), Riyan Parag, Mahipal Lomror, Tom Curran, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat.
Preview
Just 20 more league matches left in the Indian T20 League, 2020. Time flies! Chennai and Rajasthan, fresh from an unlikely loss, take on each other in match 37 in Abu Dhabi. The fitness issues of Bravo hurt Chennai against Delhi while a berserk de Villiers punished Rajasthan. Stephen Fleming is not sounding too hopeful about Bravo playing for another two weeks at least, but does that open the door for Imran Tahir's entry? Perhaps chasing is the new trend now. The batting for Chennai is slowly coming together but the bowling still has issues. Rajasthan, on the other hand, have consistently shown inconsistency in their batting order, with as many as 5 different opening combinations. Cannot help but observe that Smith is the cog in their batting wheel. If he bats long, they put up a good score or even chase totals down. They too, have issues with their bowling but unlike Chennai, they don't have big names. Need to find an inspiration from somewhere.
Chennai at this venue: Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1
Rajasthan at this venue: Played 5, Won 3, Lost 2
Toss : Chennai won the toss and elected to bat first.