Last Updated on 2 months by Charbel Coorey

IPL 2021 Match 15: KKR vs CSK Dream11 Prediction Possible Playing 11 Pitch Report | CSK vs KKR Dream11 Prediction Today | Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders | Key Players | Mumbai Pitch Report

It’s Eoin Morgan vs MS Dhoni! World Cup Winning Captain will be up against the only Captain with all the ICC Trophies for the 15th match of the IPL, 2021.

A Wiseman said once “Write CSK off at your Peril” and Super Lions have demonstrated that quite well so far. Their revamped performance shows why they have been a successful IPL Franchise for over a decade, in reality, they are blessed with special fans as well. Whistle Phodu Army on social media has gone berserk after CSK won back-to-back games.

Chennai Super Kings made a total of 188/9 in their 20 overs in which they got contributions from all their batters. In their bowling department, their Rockstar Jadeja turned the game on its head by dismissing Jos Buttler. After that Moen Ali came and broke the back of RR’s middle order by picking 3 wickets.

On the flip side of the coin, Morgan’s KKR was blown away from a master class from Big Show Maxi (78 off 49 balls) which was followed by another gem by Mr.360 (76 off 34 balls) to put a massive 204/4 on board. 

While chasing the total KKR batters got decent starts but could not capitalize on it. Their overall takeaway would be Russell fire-shots which came in the back-end of the innings. After losing back-to-back gamed, they move to Wankhede now and hope that the venue change will also bring the luck of fortune rolling on their side.

Key Players to Watch/Key Stats 

Chennai Super Kings

• Faf Du Plessis – Faf has looked good so far in IPL 2021. Against KKR, he has 203 runs from 10 innings at an average of 25.4.  
• Ruturaj Gaikwad – Gaikwad has not made most of the opportunities so far but as far as we know MS, he gives a good run to his players until the team is doing well. He has played KKR once and scored 72 runs.
• Robin Uthappa-  Uthappa was part of KKR early in his career. Against them, he has 224 runs at an average of 22.4 in just 12 innings. 
• Moren Ali-  Moeen Ali has answered all those who questioned CSK’s intent last season. He has been simply magnificent with bat and ball in IPL 2021. Against KKR he has 66 runs from 2 innings.
• Suresh Raina – Raina has got the best record against KKR in the IPL. He has 818 runs from 22 innings at an average of 45.4. 
• Ravindra Jadeja – Jadeja has a batting average of 40.6 with 365 runs from 21 innings vs KKR. He also has picked 15 wickets. Also, he has been a livewire in the field.
• Sam Curran – Sam Curran has already started showing signs that he will rule the coming decade of the IPL. Against KKR he has 85 runs and 2 wickets, with his all-around ability he will be a good choice of C/VC in grand leagues.
• Shardul Thakur has 5 wickets against KKR so far. All 5 have come while bowling first.
• Deepak Chahar – Chahar has 3 wickets from 5 innings against KKR. He will look to target their shaky powerplay batting.
• Dwayne Bravo – DJ Bravo has 17 wickets and 148 runs from his 17 matches against KKR.

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Kolkata Knight Riders

• Shubman Gill – Gill has 118 runs from his 5 innings at an average of 29.5. The KKR Opener has looked in decent touch so far, but will want to go on with his starts.
• Rahul Tripathi- Tripathi has 138 runs from 5 innings at an average of 34.5. Tripathi was part of Dhoni’s Rising Pune Super Giants so he was played Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur a lot and performed well against them so far.
• Nitish Rana – Rana has 133 runs from 5 innings against CSK. He knows Wankhede well as he was part of MI earlier in his IPL Career.
• Andre Russell – Russell has contributed with both bat and ball against CSK. He has 226 runs and 8 wickets from 8 innings.
• Harbhajan Singh knows every inch of Wankhede as he was a key player to MI for a long time. He will be playing his former side. Against them, he has 24 wickets from his 21 innings. 
• Varun Chakravarty has 3 wickets from 2 innings against CSK. Varun comes from Tamil Nadu and will be determined to perform against his state franchise. These small things do play on players’ minds.

Stats & Facts

• Overall Played 24 | CSK Won 15 | KKR 9  
• CSK has dominated against KKR while batting first.
• Pat Cummins has 4 wickets from 5 innings against CSK.
• Shakib has 124 runs and 3 wickets against CSK.
• Prasidh Krishna has played twice against CSK and gone wicketless till now.

Predicted Playing XI

Chennai Super Kings: 1. Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2. Faf du Plessis, 3. Moeen Ali, 4. Suresh Raina, 5. Ambati Rayudu, 6. Ravindra Jadeja, 7. MS Dhoni (c & wk), 8. Sam Curran, 9. Dwayne Bravo, 10. Shardul Thakur, 11. Deepak Chahar

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1. Nitish Rana, 2. Shubman Gill, 3. Rahul Tripathi, 4. Eoin Morgan (c), 5. Shakib Al Hasan, 6. Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7. Andre Russell, 8. Pat Cummins, 9. Harbhajan Singh, 10. Prasidh Krishna, 11. Varun Chakravarthy

Wankhede Mumbai Pitch Report

This is Ian Bishop Pitch’s report from CSK vs RR game.

“I want to compare the two venues. Down south in Chennai, it’s been a bat-first situation. 6 games played, 5 of them have won by teams batting first. It’s a turnaround here at Wankhede. 5 games played, 4 of them have won by the teams chasing and the other game separated by a solitary run. It means pitches here have offered either swing or seam to those bowling first or it’s been generally a good chasing ground because of moisture later on. This one is pitch number 6 where there was 147 scored where there was swing and seam. It looks drier and warmer today. If the ball swings, it won’t be because of the moisture on the surface. So, in the first 10 overs, you’ve gotta hit that good length area. The strike rate of bowlers who hit that area is much better but the trouble for bowlers later in the game is that little bit of dew that appears and allows the ball to slide onto the bat and the batsmen then feast on it. Great skill needs to come into play and once again yorkers in the second half of the innings are going to be key.”

Fantasy Nuts need to check which deck is being used for the match before the toss.

Dream11 Prediction

Option 1:

Option 2:

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Match Prediction

When Chennai gets on a roll, it becomes difficult to stop them and they have dominated against KKR in the past. We back them to get a third win on the trot. However, as we have mentioned earlier Wankhede does favor the team batting second!

Written by Shekhar Singh. Follow Shekhar on Twitter today.