Sunday afternoon of April 30 brings an all-important clash of the Kings of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) when our boys, Punjab Kings, take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk.

The Kings derby is expected to be a tough one for both teams. Our boys’ last clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) resulted in a 56-run loss. On the other hand, CSK lost their latest match to Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 32 runs. 

While the Super Kings are currently fourth-placed on the TATA IPL standings, our shers are two places below them. 

Our boys are on a three-match winning streak against the Super Kings. However, the MS Dhoni-led side has an edge at Chepauk. Out of the last five matches played in the yellow den, we have won two matches and lost three. 

Let’s look at some crucial stats before we head into the Clash of the Kings. 

Shikhar Dhawan’s Delight: 

Our Skipper, Shikhar Dhawan, is the leading run-getter from our side, scoring 234 runs in five matches. He is one half-century away from scoring 50 half-centuries in the 16-year-tournament.

Over the years in TATA IPL, Dhawan has scored 1029 runs against the Super Kings. He has also smashed 114 fours, the most by any batter vs a team. 

Most Fours vs a Team in TATA IPL
Shikhar Dhawan 114 Chennai Super Kings
David Warner 111 Kolkata Knight Riders
David Warner  106 Punjab Kings

Support by Middle Order: 

With the likes of Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma and more, our middle order has performed brilliantly this season. The Curran-Jitesh duo has scored 53% of the total runs scored by our team. 

Our batters from the 4th-7th positions have scored the second-highest number of runs of any team this season. 

Team No. of Matches Runs scored Strike rate
Kolkata Knight Riders 8 754 160
Punjab Kings 8 626 139
Lucknow Super Giants 8 616 157

Curran and Jitesh have maintained a strike rate of over 150 this season, which rises close to 200 in the death overs. 

Jitesh holds another record to his name. Our sher has hit the third-most sixes (13) by an uncapped player in this TATA IPL edition. 

Player No. of Innings Runs scored Sixes
Rinku Singh 8 251 18
Tilak Varma 7 219 14
Jitesh Sharma 8 169 13

Livi-storm Incoming: 

Liam Livingstone holds the second-highest strike rate in TATA IPL since 2022. 

Player No. of Innings Runs scored Strike rate
Glenn Maxwell 21 559 177
Liam Livingstone 17 472 175
Dinesh Karthik 24 413 170

He has also hit the joint second-most sixes by a middle-order batter since the start of last season. 

Player No. of Innings Runs scored Sixes
Nicholas Pooran 21 522 37
Liam Livingstone 17 472 36
Shimron Hetmyer 23 510 36

Too Pacey To Handle: 

Our pacers namely Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada have picked up 32 wickets this season which is the third-most by any pace attack. 

Team No. of Matches No. of Wickets Economy rate
Royal Challengers Bangalore 8 41 8.9
Lucknow Super Giants 8 33 8.5
Punjab Kings 8 32 9.5

Arshdeep is also the joint-highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets from eight matches. Out of 14, eight wickets are left-handed batters. With Arshdeep’s SR of six against LHB this season, the Super Kings could be in a tough spot with four lefties on their side.

vs RHB   vs LHB
8 No. of Innings 7
6 No. of Wickets 8
30.0 Average 9.0
20.8 Strike rate 6.1
8.8 Economy rate 9.2

Our star pacer has picked up five wickets against CSK over the years in TATA IPL. His economy rate of 6.5 is the best so far against a team. 

vs Team No. of Innings No. of Wickets Economy rate
Chennai Super Kings 4 5 6.5
Sunrisers Hyderabad 8 8 7.5
Gujarat Titans 3 2 8.3

Some more mind-boggling numbers ahead of the Kings derby: 

  • Shikhar Dhawan is 22 runs away from 6500 runs in IPL.
  • Shikhar Dhawan is 6 sixes away from 150 sixes in IPL.
  • Jitesh Sharma is 97 runs away from 500 runs in IPL.