CSK vs SRH: CSK win the toss and decide to bowl first, One change in CSK

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings, September 30 2021, 7.30 PM

Two teams that are at extreme ends of the points table will face-off against each other today in Sharjah. The contrast couldn’t be more stark. 8 wins vs 8 losses | 2 losses vs 2 wins | virtually through to the playoffs vs virtually out of the playoffs race | table-toppers vs bottom-dwellers | CSK vs SRH. All these factors suggest that this contest is a mismatch, but one can always expect a close encounter in the T20 format.

Chennai Super Kings won the toss and have decided to bowl first

MS Dhoni | CSK skipper after winning the toss: We’ll bowl first because of the smaller dimensions and looks like a fresh wicket. When you keep playing here, it tends to slow down a bit. The fresh wicket will play fair, might slow down a bit as the match progresses, but it may not be as slow as the other wickets. In a tournament like this, it becomes difficult to come back. This year, all the boys have been brilliant. Whatever time we got at the practice sessions, we have made the most use of it.

Lot of players were playing international cricket and people who were not playing made sure that they turn up early and do a bit of practice. Taking one game at a time really helps. If you take care of the game, that takes care of where your position is in the points table. We are not thinking about that (top-two finish), we just want to make sure that we execute our plans brilliantly and we keep learning from each and every game.

CSK have one change today, Bravo comes back in place of Sam.

Kane Williamson | SRH skipper on batting first: Looks like one of those surfaces, looks a little bit better than some of the the other games. We are batting first, we have to try and make use of it, assess the conditions as quickly as possible. Important for us to get off to a good start and build a decent total to defend. We need to adjust everywhere you go. For us, it’s trying to build on that last performance, there were a lot of good things.

We are going in with the same side which is exciting. More opportunity for guys as well, they are really looking forward to it. We want to play good cricket, we want to continue to improve. Four games left to do that and that’s our opportunity as a franchise. We want to keep our focus in front of us which is just small adjustments against different oppositions. We want to keep growing throughout.

No changes for SRH

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Kane Williamson(c), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma