Chennai: Having been battered and bruised losing four of its last five matches, the two bottom places teams five time winners and home favourites Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) comes face to face in key contest at the iconic Chepauk stadium here tomorrow.
Both the teams with four points each in eight matches have a mountain to climb to entertain any hopes of qualifying for the play-offs, which seemed a distant target at present.
For that, both the teams should win their remaining matches with big and huge margins to cope up with the nett run rate and also pray that the top placed teams face reverses in their remaining encounters tilting the table balance.
With six more matches remaining, both the teams utmost could reach 16 points if they win their remaining contests, but the task is not that easy, considering their performance in this edition of this lucrative league.
Despite playing at home and having the advantage, CSK needs to get its balance right. The change of guard at the helm, with th iconic M S Dhoni returning to lead the side did not work wonders, having been battered by Mumbai Indians the other day at Wankhede.
The five-day break for CSK would have given the much needed impetus for the dug out to iron out the differences and pick the right balance both in batting and bowling to outwit its opponent, which too is going through a rough phase having lost to Mumbai Indians at home yesterday.
CSK had just a solitary victory at home this season that too in its pipe-opener against MI in a tricky chase where another 10 to 15 runs in the target would have posed a problem in the chase.
Losing wickets in the power play, lack of scoring boundaries in this phase seems to have been costing both the teams dearly, though SRH has a strong line up and has scored heavily in previous outings.
SRH too faces a similar dilemma and seemed over dependant on Klassen after the top order misfired against Mumbai yesterday.
With both the teams keen to put to the record straight, as CSK had never lost to SRH at home, a keen contest is on the cards, irrespective of the fact whether they could progress to the play offs.
