Hyderabad: Chennai Super Kings defeated Delhi Capitals by six-wickets at Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam to book their 8th final berth in 10 seasons. This will be also their second consecutive appearances in the final after 2010 and 2011 when they won two successive IPL titles beating Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians respectively.
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In 2018, CSK won their record third title.
So, this time around the defending champions, CSK, will be expected to emulate their success of third and fourth season of IPL.
Will CSK be able to defend their title?
On Sunday when CSK will face archrivals Mumbai Indians, three-time IPL champions, in a high voltage grand finale of IPL 2019 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium the formers will have an uphill task in hands.
In their last three meetings against MI, CSK had to go back with empty hands.
CSK, who got off to a flying start to their title defence beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 7 wickets at Chepauk, saw a big slump in their form of late.
In the Qualifier 1, CSK, who are also three-time champions of IPL, lost to Mumbai Indians at their own den. Before their heart-wrenching defeat to the 2017 IPL champions MI, they have also been defeated by Kings XI Punjab by 6 wickets away in Mohali.
Though CSK's IPL 2019 campaign in the latter half of the tournament was not so impressive they still managed to continue their rich vein of form which helped them to clinch IPL 2018 title beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
After two back to back confidence eroding defeats the Men in Yellow cruised to the summit clash of the 12th edition of IPL by handing Delhi Capitals a six-wicket defeat in the Qualifier 2.
Out of 14 league matches, CSK won nine en route to the IPL playoffs displaying their sheer dominance over opponents. The only team who got better of CSK is MI who hold 17-12 lead over them.
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This season, Rohit Sharma-led side MI met CSK on three occasions, twice in the league stages and in Qualifier 1. MI emerged winners in all of them.
CSK veterans are the best
Despite their poor record against MI, one can't underestimate CSK who are comprised of experienced players. It must be noted that CSK are being boosted by their stars cricketers' performances in IPL 2019. While veteran spinners Imran Tahir (24), Harbhajan Singh (16) and Ravindra Jadeja (15) have been exceptional this season, taking 55 wickets among them; Deepak Chahar is leading their pace attack with 19 scalps in 16 matches.
Meanwhile, in the batting department captain, MS Dhoni is leading their run-scoring chart with 414 runs in 11 innings which came at a stunning average of 103. He is followed by Suresh Raina (375) and Faf du Plessis (370). The main worry for CSK is the dwindling form of their top order which could hurt them in the final.
So, it will be interesting to see whether they finally manage to break the MI barrier on May 12 final in Hyderabad.
