IPL 2024 SRH vs CSK Preview - Which side can claim to have made a 'good start' to the season?

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – Rajiv Gandhi Stadium IPL Records

Pitch stats from the 10 most recent IPL matches played at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium

Team form SRH vs CSK
SRH: LWL
CSK: WWL

Recent meetings: IPL 2023 - CSK won by 7 wickets

Weather

General Forecast: Overcast, Dry
Chance of dew: Low

Preview SRH vs CSK

Defeats in their last round of matches leaves these 2 teams needing to win here tonight in order to claim that they have had a 'good start' to the IPL 2024 season.

Given their exploits in the first 2 matches, SRH went down with a bit of whimper to Gujarat last time out. While their batting unit has been hyped up after a couple of massive scores, none of their top 7 managed to pass the 30 run mark on a tougher Narendra Modi pitch and against a more rounded bowling attack, despite the fact that all 7 batsmen spent at least 13 balls at the crease.

Certainly, SRH could have done with someone playing that 35 ball half century knock to guide them through that middle over period and really allow them to cut loose at the back end. An extra 10 or 15 runs would have put them in a strong position to win that game.

Of course, that might not be the kind of knock that they need tonight if the Rajiv Gandhi continues to play in the same manner it when Mumbai came to visit. The true art of any form of cricket is adapting to conditions and playing circumstances accordingly and we've not yet seen enough evidence of that from this SRH side not just this season but the last few as well.

CSK meanwhile will have to doff their cap and admit that DC were simply the better side when they met earlier in the week. There was some early movement around for the DC bowlers resulting in CSK delivering the 2nd lowest powerplay score of the season to date of 32 for 2. Despite re-building, they never really got any momentum in their innings and only a late cameo from MS Dhoni prevented the losing margin from being far greater.

Again, though if conditions remain similar to the first match played on this pitch then we're likely to see some much faster scoring during the powerplay courtesy of the aggressive left-handers at the top of each team's line-up.

Batsman	Powerplay Runs	Powerplay Strike Rate
TM Head	77	240.6
Abhishek Sharma	54	216.0
R Ravindra	79	175.6

Powerplay records in IPL 2024 to date

Rachin Ravindra's stats have been somewhat spoilt by his 12 ball 2 in the last match. Prior to that he was striking at 233 in the powerplay. Is that just a temporary blip or have DC exposed a weakness that others can follow?

SRH vs CSK head to head

CSK bowling vs SRH batting

The big blow for CSK could be the absence of Mustafizur Rahman for this game who it seems likely will need to return to Bangladesh in order to sort out a US visa that would allow him to feature in the T20 World Cup in June. There's nothing like a bit of bureaucracy to spoil a game of cricket!

Chahar T20 record at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium

Beyond his fine form this season, the Fizz also knows this venue very well from his time with the Sunrisers. He took 10 wickets at an economy of 6.8 at this stadium during that period! Instead, CSK will be looking to Deepak Chahar to continue his fine form at this venue. He strikes at better than a wicket every 2 overs in T20 cricket at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.

Travis Head took 22 off a Deepak Chahar over when Australia toured India at the end of 2023

However, is Chahar brave enough to pitch the ball up and see if he can extract some early swing against this SRH top order? He will know from his experience of playing against Travis Head in a T20 international in December that if you pitch it in his half, the Aussie will throw a bat at it. Equally, Mayank Agarwal has been out pulling in all 3 innings so far, suggesting that a short ball ploy might also be the tactic to adopt to him.

If the Fizz is unavailable then the other options that CSK might wish to consider is spin. Pace bowlers seem to be having more of an impact to date in IPL 2024 and it was strange to see CSK, a side that has so often relied on slower bowlers for it's success, line-up with just a single spinner in their last match.

Opposition	Run-rate vs pace	Run-rate vs spin
KKR	11.1	9.2
MI	12.6	16.8
GT	7.9	8.1

SRH run-rate against pace and spin bowling in all IPL 2024 matches to date

The absence of the Mustafizur would leave an overseas spot open that could be filled by Theekshana or Moeen Ali. The 2 sides that have beaten SRH so far this season have used spin to good effect both to limit scoring and take crucial wickets (Head and Klaasen were both out to spin in the game against GT). Could CSK look to deploy a similar tactic in this match?

SRH bowling vs CSK batting

Given the dominance of pace bowlers so far in IPL 2024, it's perhaps surprising that Bhuvi is yet to register a wicket. It's not for lack of trying with his opening spells against KKR and GT both looking dangerous. He might fancy breaking his duck against this CSK team and in particular his old national teammate Ajinke Rahane.

Rahane T20 head to head vs Bhuvi

One area that CSK were so strong in last year was their run scoring during the middle over phase. That however has proven a bit trickier this year with Daryl Mitchell currently scoring at a strike rate 131 in the middle overs and failing to carry his starts against RCB and DC into the later phase. Similarly, Dube got very stuck against RCB (7 from 13 at one point) before finally cutting lose later on but struggled again vs GT with 18 from 17.

If the big run scoring is to continue here at the Rajiv Gandhi then CSK will need to ensure that they don't succumb to another quiet 4 or 5 over spell during that middle phase. Of course, if they can build through that period then they'll fancy really accelerating at the death against an SRH attack that is going at 14.1 an over during the final 5 so far in IPL 2024!

Dhoni & Jadeja combined T20 head to head vs Cummins

The only man who has provided SRH's death overs with any kind of stability to date is Pat Cummins who has an impressive economy rate of 7.3 in that phase of the game so far in IPL 2024. He is also has a good head to head record in T20 cricket against CSK's 2 finishers and so his spell will be crucial once again to his side's chances of a victory.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL player head to head records
IPL player records by stadium
IPL stadium records.
Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and highlights within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- read full disclaimer. Background images are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free.