It's Dhoni v Pant again with everything on the line
It's youth v experience. It's a team learning to revel under pressure v a team that repels it. It has fun written all over it
Big picture
Likely XIs
Previous meeting
Strategy punt
- MS Dhoni is master of the endgame: 213 of his 405 runs this season have come from overs 18 to 20. Chris Morris is good at the death too: ten of his 13 wickets this IPL have come in overs 16 to 20. That match-up should get the South African in the XI. That and the fact that Dhoni hits every other Capitals bowler at a strike rate of 170 or more.
- Rishabh Pant always had the big-hitting thing down but now he's starting to finish games. But for some reason, he hadn't hit a six on the off side against fast bowling until last night. Maybe Dwayne Bravo, who has a favourable T20 head-to-head against the left-hander (25 off 20, one dismissal), could run with that; bowl wide of off stump to see what happens.
Stats that matter
- CSK's spinners have taken 55 wickets this IPL, the most by a team in a single season. And it hasn't been a one-man show either: Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja have all picked up 12-plus wickets.
- They will be very keen to have a go at the Capitals middle-order. The Nos. 4 to 7 have averaged only 20.5, third-worst among all teams this year.
- CSK have batting issues as well, in their top order. Shane Watson's average of 14.6 in the Powerplay is the second-lowest for an opener in the history of the IPL. And, as a result of that, the team has rarely had a solid foundation to build an innings.
- Trent Boult is genius. But it's not always been apparent in the IPL, where he averages 53.7 runs per wicket in Powerplay and concedes at 10.7 runs per over at the death, two phases where a fast bowler is expected to deliver for the team.
- The average score in Vizag in T20Is and IPL matches since 2013 is 148. And based on the Eliminator, spin could play a big part: economy rate of 6 as opposed to 9.6 for fast bowling
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo