Indian Premier League - IPL / Tobias Gourlay / 14 April 2012 /

Chennai bounce into this game on the back of a win, while Pune slumped to defeat last time out. Tobias Gourlay expects the Super Kings to show what champions are made of

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Pune

Pune lost home and away against Chennai last year. Sourav Ganguly has joined the team since then and led them to wins in each of their first two games this season. The Warriors lost comprehensively to Punjab last time out and it is a concern that no one's reached fifty in any of those games.

Chennai

MS Dhoni's defending champions have played four times already. Twice they have batted first and failed to go beyond 112. In the other two games they have whacked 193/6 up first and successfully chased 206.

It's possible the batsmen are putting too much pressure on themselves to make huge team scores every time, but the most recent result was a good one and the Super Kings should at least be full of confidence in Pune.

Venue & conditions

The Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium made its IPL debut just under a week ago. The home side batted first and made 166/6. Kings XI Punjab then fell 22 runs short.

Match Odds

Chennai have won two titles, made three finals and always reached the last four. To get to the semi-finals they will need to improve the 50 per cent hit rate of the campaign to date. The market expects them to beat Pune in Pune. It's hard to disagree outright, but the [2.52] about Pune offers more room to trade in-play and, in this condensed format, technical and psychological superiority do not always have time to make themselves known.

Top Pune Batsman

There's talent at the top of the batting order - of course there is, this is the IPL - but the overseas stars have not shone and neither has Manish Pandey. Ganguly himself could also do more.

Robin Uthappa has scored the highest aggregate number of runs at this early stage (93 from three innings) and 'got a start', as they say, every time. He had a miserable IPL4, but has the range of shots to outshine all of his team-mates. He's been batting at No.4, but, with only the out-of-form openers and perhaps a pinch-hitter above him, you should at least get a good run for your money.

Top Chennai Batsman

Going into Friday's game, three Chennai hitters were among the eight batsmen to have made more than 90 runs in the tournament to date. The trio are helped by having played a game more than most others, however. Faf du Plessis leads Dwayne Bravo and Suresh Raina for now, but the South African's career average (22 from 55 T20 games) suggests he is due a failure soon.

Best Bet: Back Robin Uthappa for Top Pune Batsman @ [5.0]

*Follow Tobias on Twitter: @tobiasgourlay

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