Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Tips: CSK to return to form

• Chennai value at home

• Slower surface possible

• Be wary of Gaikwad bet

• Read about Ed's Betfair Exchange strategy below

Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders
Monday 8 April, 15:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders team news

Chennai could welcome back Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana. The pair were unavailable for the Sunrisers defeat because of visa issues (for the T20 World Cup in June) and injury respectively. Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana could step out.

Possible XI: Gaikwad, Ravindra, Rahane, Mitchell, Dube, Rizvi, Jadeja, Dhoni, Deepak, Deshpande, Mustafizur, Pathirana

Kolkata are hoping that batter Nitish Rana is fit again after missing the last two games. If so, Venkatesh Iyer may have to miss out following the emergence of hitter Angkrish Raghuvanshi.

Possible XI: Salt, Narine, Raghuvanshi, Rana, Iyer, Rinku, Russell, Ramandeep/Surash (subs), Starc, Harshit, Varun

Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders pitch report

Eleven of the last 21 at the Chepauk have seen first-innings scores of under 160. But CSK smashed 206 last time out against Gujarat. A bit more and wear and tear in the surface, though, may mean a slower wicket. An unders par line of 177.5 feels high historically.

Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders match odds

Chennai are 1.9310/11 with Kolkata 2.0621/20. It's a big price about the Super Kings on home territory where they have a formidable 65% win rate.

The close nature of the odds reflects a lack of faith in Chennai after two bad defeats to Delhi and Sunrisers. The former looks increasingly desperate.

Kolkata have a 100% record having beaten both those teams and Bangalore. Ordinarily we'd argue KKR have been overrated because of the weak opposition and this is a real test of their credentials but CSK's wobble has knocked confidence.

For that reason we won't go to mad on staking but we hope Chennai return to the mean at their fortress. A slower surface should negate KKR's hitter somewhat while MS Dhoni needs to get in new skip Ruturaj Gaikwad's ear.

Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders Exchange strategy

We saw massive numbers recorded by Mumbai in the death overs and Kolkata are set up for something similar. As we have said before the likes of Tushar Deshpande does have a tendency to lose his radar in the last four.

Adding 70-80 runs on the innings runs line for the last four overs for KKR if they bat first can return decent profits.

Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders player bets

Andre Russell was being lined up for a bet here but the 11/26.50 is tough to take considering he was 8s only a game ago. Instead bet him in-play from 10/111.00. If Nitish is fit he has a win rate of 25% so we're hoping for 4/15.00. For Chennai, Ruturaj Gaikwad has proven a swerve is as good as a win. With a win rate of only 18% he is poor value at an expected 13/53.60.

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