Chennai: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their final league game of the season at the MA Chidrambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday (May 14). Both the former champions find themselves on contrasting ends of the spectum this season.

While a win would seal a place in the final four of the competition for the Men in Yellow who are currently sitting at the second place on the table with 15 points from 12 matches, for KKR each of their two remaining games are must-win ones to have an outside chance of being in contention for the Playoffs.

This match though can be looked upon as the battle between two teams who have among the best spin attacks. However, it is the batting that has been the difference between the two teams. CSK’s top order has done the bulk of the scoring for them while KKR’s top-order has struggled to get the runs. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube have all had a great season so far and even Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni have played a few cameos heading into the business end of the competition.

The same cannot be said about KKR who have relied on their middle order for most of their runs. Rinku Singh has been a hero for Kolkata and so has been Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer. Jason Roy has just played 6 innings but has found a way to be among the top run-getters of the team which tells a story about the form of the other players.

Andre Russell and Sunil Narine have been trusted by the franchise but they would have expected more in return and if they fail to reach the Playoffs their future with the team could surely be a matter of discussion.

Probable Playing XIs-

CSK: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana (Impact Sub: Ambati Rayudu)

KKR: Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana/Umesh Uadav, Suyash Sharma, Varun CV (Impact Sub: Anukul Roy)