Chennai Super Kings will host the Rajasthan Royals in the 32nd game of the IPL this season. The match will be played under hot, humid and sapping conditions in Chennai, and it will be a huge test of endurance for the foreign players from both the sides.

Chennai will be feeling a tad better after having won the previous game against Bangalore, but surprisingly will go into the match as favourites (4/5 at Stan James). Given that they lie at the second last position on the points table, and Rajasthan is in the top four, one would have thought that Sky Bet’s offer of 6/5 sounds tempting.

Rajasthan’s resurrection has been due to their batting at the top of the innings. The likes of Michael Lumb (4/1 at Ladbrokes) and Naman Ojha (4/1 at Sky Bet, to top-score for their side) have allowed the middle order to play more freely, something that was not the case in the first three games. Of course, against Delhi, the target was far too steep and then both openers were dismissed in the first over itself to render the contributions from Adam Voges (6/1 at Ladbrokes) and Yusuf Pathan (7/2 at Boylesports to be the best for their side) a tad too late.

For this game though, I get a sense that one of the lesser known Indian faces of Faiz Fazal (6/1 at Sky Bet to top-score for Rajasthan) or Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (9/1 at Ladbrokes to be best batsman for his side) could make the difference in the batting order, after having struggled in the last couple of games.

Chennai has had a decent batting performance or two in the tournament, but it is their bowling that has caused much worry. While Doug Bollinger has been called up as a replacement, he will take time to adapt to the sapping Chennai weather when compared to New Zealand, where he was involved in the Test series. This will mean that Murali Vijay (4/1 at Ladbrokes to top-score for his side) will need to bat as well as he did the previous game, whereas Mathew Hayden (5/2 at Boylesports) will look to stamp his authority on the tournament.

However, to me, the batsman that I will like to totally rely on is MS Dhoni (5/1 at Ladbrokes to be the best batsman for Chennai). He hasn’t had a great tournament so far, after been injured for some time and then returning back to not get too many runs so far. The man to watch out for, according to me!

Tips:
Favourites: Chennai (4/5 at Stan James)
Top Chennai batsman: MS Dhoni (5/1 at Ladbrokes)
Top Rajasthan batsman: Faiz Fazal (6/1 at Sky Bet)