Punjab Kings (PBKS), after their narrow victory against the
Rajasthan Royals in the previous match, will be facing a well-rested Chennai Super
Kings (CSK) on Friday, with the latter having lost their IPL season-opener
against Delhi Capitals, but getting some much-needed cooling period before
facing the Punjab-based team.

The match against Rajasthan Royals displayed some
significant gaps in PBKS’ bowling attack, as RR-skipper Sanju Samson had toyed
with the Punjab bowling, accompanied at various phases of the match by various
other batsmen in his team.

Economy rates for all the PBKS bowlers in the match turned
out to be higher than 8.0, with the Kings’ much-touted new recruit Jhye
Richardson being the most expensive, at 13.75. Fellow pacer Riley Meredith too
proved to be expensive, at 12.25 runs per over.

Also read: RR vs DC: In an IPL first, Wankhede witnesses first inning without a six

Batting for the Kings, on the other hand, proved to be in a
much more dependable state. Captain KL Rahul, Chris Gayle and Deepak Hooda all got
runs in the match against Rajasthan, with Rahul missing out on his century by
nine runs.

CSK’s batting line up, despite scoring a decent total of 188
in their previous match, will be facing uncertainties regarding its opening duo
of Faf du Plesis and Ruturaj Gaikwad, with the two scoring five and zero runs
respectively in the previous match.

Also read: Who is Deepak Hooda, the PBKS batsman who smashed 64 off 28 balls

The major chunk of CSK’s runs came from the upper and middle
order, namely Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja.

MS Dhoni, though a celebrated middle order batsman, faltered
and was sent back by Avesh Khan.

Like Punjab, Chennai’s bowling too could cost them dearly.
Shardul Thakur, who picked up two wickets, was quite expensive, with a 14.45 economy
rate. All-rounder Dwayne Bravo, on the other hand, picked up a wicket after
bowling four overs with a tighter economy rate of 7.0.

Also read: IPL 2021: Punjab Kings secure narrowly fought victory against Rajasthan Royals

Apart from the aforementioned, the Kings will be looking to enhance
their fielding performance, after KL Rahul dropping Samson at 12 in the
previous match.

Head-to-head, Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab) and
Chennai Super Kings have played 23 matches against each other, with Chennai
winning 14 of them and PBKS winning 9.