CSK, SRH in battle of equals

Mumbai, May 26

The 51-day long T20 carnival has finally reached its climax and two-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad will face off in the summit clash of the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.

While Chennai made it to the final by beating Hyderabad by two wickets in Qualifier-1 on Tuesday, Hyderabad had to go through Qualifier-2. The Kane Williamson-led side overcame Kolkata Knight Riders by 14 runs at the Eden Gardens on Friday to seal a place in the final.

Both the sides have met each other thrice in this IPL and the Chennai outfit holds a 3-0 record over their southern neighbours.

In the much-awaited final, it will be a clash between Hyderabad’s bowling and Chennai’s batting. With the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan and Siddarth Kaul, Hyderabad’s orange army boasts of a superb bowling attack. Chennai’s yellow brigade has a star-studded batting line-up comprising Shane Watson, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina and others.

Eyes on Rashid

However, all eyes will be on Afghan leg-spinner Rashid, who has been brilliant throughout this season, bagging 21 wickets from 16 games. The leggie had troubled Chennai in the first qualifier with figures of 2/11.

On the batting front, the tournament top-scorer Williamson has led from the front. The New Zealand skipper has so far amassed 688 runs in 16 games at an average of 52.92. Overall, it could be another edge-of-the-seat match on a Super Sunday for fans when the two best teams of this year’s league square off for one final time. — IANS

100 CSK’s top run-getter Ambati Rayudu (586) is 100 runs behind Orange Cap holder Kane Williamson (688). Their top wicket-taker Shardul Thakur (15) is way behind Andrew Tye’s 20 scalps

3-0 CSK’S head-to-head record against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Sunrisers may have lost all three of their meetings with CSK this season, but two were close finishes that could easily have gone the other way 

6 time in 11 IPL seasons that the teams finishing in top-two are meeting in the final. Team finishing 2nd won the first four such meetings (2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015) and the team topping the table won the 2017 final 

455 MS Dhoni has enjoyed his best ever IPL with 455 runs from 15 games with a strike-rate of 150-plus and a total of 30 sixes

3 Finals CSK have lost —2012, 2013 and 2015.  They haven’t won the final since winning back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011

Afghan president calls Rashid a national treasure 

Kolkata: Rashid Khan remembered those killed in a recent blast during a cricket match in his hometown Jalalabad, even as Indian cricket fans and his country’s first citizen indulged in some good-natured banter over his citizenship. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani called him a hero. So impressed were the Indian cricket lovers that they wondered on the social media if Rashid could be given an Indian citizenship and allowed to play for India. In his response, the Afghan President tweeted, “Afghans take absolute pride in our hero, Rashid Khan. I am also thankful to our Indian friends for giving our players a platform to show their skills. Rashid reminds us what’s best about Afghanistan. He remains an asset to the cricketing world. No, we are not giving him away.” — PTI