Match Previews / Edward Hammond-Kenny / 13 March 2010 /

Deccan Chargers look to rebuld their campaign after Friday's horror show but MS Dhoni's Chennai Superkings possess one of the most explosive batting line-ups in the IPL, including that man Matthew Hayden.

Venue and Conditions

Chennai open their tournament with a home game against Deccan at the venerable MA Chidambaram Stadium. During IPL 1 the average 1st innings total here was an impressive 170, the result of fair pitches combined with Chennai's explosive batting line up. Two matches saw both teams score over 200. Expect to see plenty of runs again in IPL 3 as Chennai look to overwhelm their opponents with their batting depth.

Team News

Chennai came close to winning IPL 1 and 2 but the thinking goes that their team may be slightly past its best as their overseas stars are either ageing, injured or both (Andrew Flintoff, Jacob Oram, Muralitharan and Ntini being the obvious examples). In Matthew Hayden though they have arguably the best batsman in this format of the game, while MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina also boast enviable records in T20. Their bowling though is severely lacking in quality so they need Albie Morkel to step up with the ball this tournament.

Deccan threw away their opener against Kolkata in a blaze of injudicious thrashing as all five of their top order got caught trying to hit the ball out of the park. Their team is unlikely to change much though, simply because they still only have four overseas players available to them. RP Singh's bowling form is a worry, though in PP Ojha they have one of the most consistent spinners in T20 who can keep things tight during the middle overs.

Match Odds

The layers are again struggling to separate the two teams and it's almost evens the pair. Chennai should be the slight favourites come game time and their gameplan will revolve around trying to bat first , posting a big score and trying to defend it as they best they can. Deccan will look to their top order to show better shot selection, while their bowling will most likely look towards damage limitation against Hayden and co.

Top Batsman

For Chennai Matthew Hayden would be the obvious selection but i'm slightly put off by his decision to use the oddly shaped Mongoose bat as it's not like he needed any assistance to clear the ropes last season. I'd like to see one innings of him using his new weapon of choice before backing him. Both Dhoni and Suresh Raina showed good form against South Africa in the recent ODI series. Raina should be higher up the order than Dhoni so for small stakes he would be my pick.

For Deccan it's the obvious call but it's hard to see past Adam Gilchrist. He top scored for Deccan in game one while hardly middling a single ball, he should improve now he has that knock under his belt.

Featured Market

On the batting head to heads I like the look of MS Dhoni to outscore Andrew Symonds. Dhoni is in form while Symonds looked scratchy in game one.

Trivia

Chennai's Matthew Hayden was the top runscorer in IPL 2 with 572 runs at a massive average of 52.

Best Bet

Ed Hammond-Kenny says: Back Suresh Raina to top score for Chennai at [5.0] or better.

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