Punjab Kings hope for a miracle as Chennai Super Kings cement top-two spot
KL Rahul and his men will be hoping their competition loses big as well
Big picture
In the news
Likely XIs
Strategy punt
- Given Dhoni's struggles this season - 84 runs at a strike rate of 98 - Super Kings may want to think about pushing him as far down the order as possible. It's not like they don't have other options to play the finisher's role. Jadeja, for example, has a death-overs strike rate of 203 and a balls-per-boundary ratio of 3.45 this IPL. Dwayne Bravo is even better: 269 and 2.66.
- The Kings' opening pair have contributed 49% of their runs this campaign, so it would probably be best not to mess with that. Still Nicholas Pooran's struggles down the order have been so horrible (average 7.72) that the time has come for drastic measures. Send him out to open. See what happens.
Stats that matter
- Shardul Thakur has a middle-overs (7-16) economy rate of 5.53 (minimum of 25 balls) in this second leg of the IPL. That's the second-best by any fast bowler in the tournament.
- Shahrukh Khan is the only middle-order batter (Nos. 4-7) in the Kings line-up with a strike-rate in excess of 130 this year.
- Raina's average of 17.8 is the second-worst out of all the batters who have made at least 150 runs this season.
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo