Fleming was also fielded questions on his team having been forced to shift its home games out of Chennai to Pune over Cauvery water dispute protests. "There's obviously been a lot going on. I guess the positive is that we have had two wins out of two. There haven't been great performances, but..fighting wins, which sometimes at the start of the tournament are more valuable. Yet disappointed to be leaving Chennai, we set our auctions to pick a team that was based on conditions in Chennai,” he said. About playing in Pune, he said, "Whether the Pune pitch is the same it was 12 months earlier, we will have to wait and see when we get there. We know some characteristics of that ground, which is again a positive. Does it replace Chepauk, no it doesn't. But we will get our players get used to the conditions (at Pune) as quick as we can."
Suresh Raina of the Chennai Superkings celebrates the wicket of Robin Uthappa. (BCCI)
After opening their campaign with a stunning win over Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, Chennai Super Kings pulled off yet another thrilling chase to beat Kolkata Knight Riders. The likes of Dwayne Bravo and Sam Billings are in red-hot form for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team. CSK have enough depth in their batting line-up with the likes of Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Billings and Bravo. The live telecast of the IPL 2018 match between Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will start at 8 PM on April 15th (Sunday). Today’s IPL live match can be seen on the Star Sports network and IPL online free live streaming will be available on hotstar.com and Jio app. You can also follow our live blog for ball-by-ball updates and analysis on cricketnext.com.
The spin trio of Harbhajan Singh, Jadeja and Imran Tahir can be a potent force as they are complemented by Deepak Chahar, Watson and Shardul Thakur. On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab are coming into the match after yesterday's loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The KXIP started the season on a resounding note, beating Delhi Daredevils by six wickets.
Local player KL Rahul, who fashioned the victory with the fastest-ever fifty in IPL, justified why the franchise spent Rs 11 crore for him. Rahul smashed a 30-ball 47 against RCB and had Punjab not lost wickets in quick succession, they could have notched up a bigger total than the 155 they managed while batting first. A cause of concern for KXIP is the form of their top batsman Yuvraj Singh, who has made 12 and 4 in the two games while in the bowling department, Mohit Sharma looked off colour against RCB. Ashwin has been in good form with his bowling and has contributed with the bat as well.
Playing his maiden innings as a captain, Ashwin has also been marshalling his men nicely. In the batting department, there are high expectations from Aaron Finch, who was unavailable for the opening match, but failed with the bat against RCB. Punjab's bowlers are doing a fine job with 17-year-old spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rahman surprising the batsmen with his unconventional deliveries. He was even rewarded with the prize wicket of RCB skipper Virat Kohli. Apart from Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb, Axar Patel and Andrew Tye add depth to Punjab's bowling attack.
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (capt), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (captain), AJ Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Chris Gayle.