Varun Chakravarthy's additional ricochet and flighty angles will keep the Chennai Super Kings batsmen on tenterhooks as they take on Kolkata Knight Riders in a high-power Indian Premier League experience here on Sunday.
On a roll post-IPL's resumption, both Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders would hope to proceed with their series of wins when the two most impressive sides of the tournament's second phase clash against one another in the second doubleheader.
Both CSK and KKR have registered two wins out of as many games post-IPL's resumption in the UAE, and the different sides would be desperate to outmaneuver each other in their bid to register a full go-around of victories.
In any case, Chakravarthy, who had tortured the CSK batters during last season in UAE will jump at the chance to by and by ask testing questions to the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, and MS Dhoni on tracks where the ball would occasionally grasp and go onto the bat slower than anticipated.
Another normal factor post the tournament's resumption is that CSK and KKR have registered both their pounding wins against Royal Challengers Bangalore and reigning champs Mumbai Indians.
While CSK beat MI and RCB by 20 runs and seven wickets respectively, KKR restrained RCB and MI by nine and seven wickets respectively.
Yet, it is in the standings where CSK holds an edge over KKR. While the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-drove side is on the hierarchy with 14 points from nine games, KKR is at the fourth spot with eight points from the same number of matches.
Youthful Gaikwad has been an ominous structure at the top. In the wake of scoring a game dominating unbeaten 88 off 58 balls against MI, he made a speedy 38 against RCB on Friday and in the organization of Faf du Plessis gave a decent start to the group while chasing 157.
What's more, Dhoni would need the youngster to proceed along these lines.
After an unimpressive excursion against MI, CSK batters lifted their game with Du Plessis (31), Moeen Ali (23), Ambati Rayudu (32), Suresh Raina (17 not out), Dhoni (11) all getting starts.
Be that as it may, it is the presentation of the bowling unit which should be praised as the bowlers were upto their task for the second consecutive match to hand CSK its seventh success of the season.
Dwayne Bravo (3/24) was splendid with the ball against RCB, while Shardul Thakur (2/29) and Deepak Chahar (1/35) offered great help toward the West Indian.
KKR, then again, had a fantastic start to the second leg after struggled in the first phase.
KKR is looking for something else entirely, in the way where they crushed RCB and MI.
Freshman Venketesh Iyer had impressed one and all with his stroke-making in his first two IPL games. While he made a 27-ball 41 in KKR's 93-run chase against RCB, in the game against MI the opener made 53 off 30 balls.
Shubman Gill is also in fine structure and with Rahul Tripathi (74 not out off 42) to coming great, KKR's batting looks in safe hands.
The tall opener Venkatesh will confront an alternate sort of challenge when Deepak Chahar starts swinging the ball the two ways which will also test his skills considering he doesn't have a distinct footwork entire playing the faster bowlers.
Yet, skipper Eoin Morgan would be desperate to return among runs.
On the bowling front, Varun Chakravarthy, star all-rounder Andre Russell, Lockie Ferguson, Sunil Narine and Prasidh Krishna would expect to proceed with their fine show.
KKR will like to keep playing in an aggressive fashion and win the title just like the 2014 version when they indented nine victories in succession.
Teams (From):
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (Captain) Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Robin Uthappa, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Jason Behrendorff, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mitchell Santner, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Cheteshwar Pujara, KM Asif, Harishankar Reddy, Bhagath Varma.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (chief), Dinesh Karthik, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Karun Nair, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathy, Shubman Gill, Harbhajan Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Pawan Negi, M Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Dube, Tim Southee, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russel, Ben Cutting, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sheldon Jackson, Tim Seifert.
The match starts at 3:30 PM IST.