Chennai Super Kings v Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL Tips: Fortress Chepauk to boost CSK

• CSK value for win

• Dube underrated for runs

• Keep an eye on Markram and Klaasen

Chennai Super Kings v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Friday 21 April, 15.00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Team news

Chennai's selection discussion is likely to centre around whether they go for the pace and death expertise of Matheesha Pathirana or the spin of Mitchell Santner.

It would be hard on Pathirana not to get another gig, particularly as Ravi Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana are available. Ben Stokes, injured or not, isn't getting into the XI currently.

Ambati Rayudu and Akash Singh are the batting and bowling impact swicthes respectively.

Possible XII: Gaikwad, Conway, Moeen, Rahane, Dube, Rayudu, Jadeja, Dhoni, Deshpande, Theekshana, Pathirana, Akash

Sunrisers face a spin trial when they bat. But they do have options with the ball to cause problems of their own, similar to Rajasthan who won at the Chepauk.

Adil Rashid, Akeal Hosein and Mayan Markanade are all options. The latter is a certain starter. Marco Jansen may step away for one of the former.

Possible XII: Brook, Agarwal, Tripathi, Markram, Abhishek, Klaasen, Samad, Sundar, B Kumar, Rashid, Markande, Natarajan

Pitch report

There have been scores of 217 and 175 defended at the Chepauk this term. On all-time IPL data it has been a strong bat-first venue with the bias in the 60% region. The average winning score is ticking up from a pre-tournament 168.

How to play

Sunrisers are believed to have a weakness against spin with the bat. But whether Chennai recognise that is no gurantee. Remember MS Dhoni had no clue that Kyle Mayers was chronic against tweak.

And that is what we could be betting on. If CSK are at it, they really should add to their tally of 19 wins in the last 23 at home. To that end it's surprising Chennai are as big as 1.834/5. Stick with them if they bat first.

This feels like a watershed game for Sunrisers. No team has more talent. But what about the desire and work ethic. Those priceless qualities looked severely lacking against Mumbai Indians and they need to wake up.

Tops value

Shivam Dube is the wrong price at 11/1 with Sportsbook for top CSK bat on win rate and where he bats. He crashed 52 from 27 at No 4 last time out against RCB.

There are two options for top SRH bat. Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen look in great touch and probably desreve more respect at 5s and 6s. Harry Brook and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been boosted to 16/5 and 13/5 respectively.