Preview CSK vs RR IPL 2021, Match 12, April 18th, Wankhede Stadium. CSK vs RR head to head player stats and records. Team news and match predictions for CSK vs RR.
Key match stats CSK vs RR preview
Venue Stats – Wankhede Stadium
- Average first innings: 166
- Average first innings winning score: 178
- Average powerplay score: 45
- All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 47% / 52%
Find full venue stats and records here
Team form CSK vs RR preview
- CSK – WL
- RR – WL
- Previous meetings: IPL 2020, RR won by 16 runs and RR won by 7 wickets
IPL 2021 CSK vs RR preview
CSK vs RR might have been a very different preview had both sides not turned around disappointing opening match performances with excellent wins. Now going into game 3 of the season both have the opportunity to move up the table and begin to hope for better things.
The Royals did the double over the Super Kings in the last IPL season and following their late victory over the Delhi Capitals in their last outing, they’ll be full of confidence for this match. Equally, CSK’s commanding victory over PBKS has set them up nicely for this fixture and allays some of the concerns about their bowling attack having the necessary penertration.
In general we’ll need to wait and see what kind of pitch we get at the Wankhede for CSK vs RR. Both teams played on more bowler friendly surfaces in their last games here but as we saw from the match yesterday, if the pitch is less “tacky” then the ball comes on very nicely and scores of 200 are about par. I’d say that batting is the stronger suit for both these teams so if we get the right conditions this could be a high scoring affair.
CSK vs RR head to head player stats
CSK bowling vs RR batting
Deepak Chahar was the hero of CSK’s first win of IPL 2021 and his head to head record vs RR suggests that he’ll be a key player once again. Perhaps most significant is his match-up with Royals captain and star batsman Sanju Samson who he has dismissed 3 times in previous IPL meetings.
A slight concern for RR would be the form of their top order with Samson’s century in their opening game of IPL 2021 the only score of note from their first 4 batsman so far. With Ben Stokes out for the remainder of the tournament it looks likely that Jos Buttler will return to opening the batting and his record against this CSK bowling attack is fairly good.
Indeed, Buttler seems to take particular delight in hitting his England colleagues with an IPL strike rate of 243 vs Sam Curran and Moeen Ali.
Stokes’ injury has opened the door to South Africa’s David Miller who prior to his match winning performance against DC was something of a forgotten man in the IPL. Since his peak during the 2014 & 2015 IPL seasons Miller has struggled to command a place and his half century last week was only his second in the IPL since the end of 2015.
One further concern for the Royals is the balance of right and left hand batsmen in their line-up with the top 3 all likely to be right handers while the middle order is packed with lefties. CSK’s 2 finger spin options in Jadeja and Moeen Ali could well get plenty of overs as Dhoni looks to utlise those match-ups
| Batsman (hand) | Ave. vs right arm finger spin | Ave. vs slow left arm |
| Vohra (R) | 36.00 | 18.67 |
| Dube (L) | 7.00 | n/a* |
| Miller (L) | 26.29 | 60.67 |
RR bowling vs CSK batting
The other surprise return to both the playing XI and form for RR was Jaydev Unadkat who took just 4 wickets in 7 matches during last season’s IPL but has almost eclipsed that total already with his magnificent 3 for 15, knocking the top off a DC batting line-up who have prospered of late. Unfortunately for Unadkat he comes up against a CSK outfit that he does not have a good head to head record against.
One man who does enjoy playing against CSK and in particular their left-handers is Chris Morris. With Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ravi Jadeja and Sam Curran all key members of the CSK batting line-up then Morris could be in business once again.
For CSK, big question marks remain over their opening pair Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The former at least hung around during the run chase against DC although struggled for any kind of fluency while the younger Gaikwad has looked woefully short of form. I’m sure that CSK will be keen to give him a bit longer at the top of the order but they do have several options if they wish to consider a change including the likes of Narayan Jagadeesan, Robin Uthappa and Chezhian Harinishanth.
One many who is in form and enjoying this venue is Moeen Ali. When he is on song, there are few better players to watch in world cricket and you can tell by the way Moeen is picking up the bat that he feels incredibly confident at present. It’s a remarkable turn around for a player that has struggled for consistency and game time for England of late and perhaps his national team can learn something from the way that CSK are man managing the all-rounder in IPL 2021.
All IPL player head to head records can be found here
