Enduring a difficult campaign, Chennai Super Kings will already be counting down to the end of the season as they cannot wait for this trauma to end. They were on the receiving end of a humbling defeat to RR last time out, losing by seven wickets. Rock-bottom on the standings, CSK have won only one of their previous five matches. Their batsmen are in horrendous form, churning out performances that are painful to watch. The bowling unit have single handedly led this team to their only three victories so far. A single defeat from kissing their hopes of progressing to the next round goodbye, MS Dhoni will be spurring his boys on to pull something off the charts in this upcoming contest. Bowlers Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood will need to hit to gear here, to help their teams cause.
This is not a timid team and it can make a rustle in LE. Remember last year the first place in the group with PSV, Sporting and Rosenborg (4 wins, a draw and a defeat – total 11:4), then there was a victory over AZ Alkmaar in 1/16 and relegation from Manchester United in 1/8. In the Austrian championship LASK claimed 2nd place (a ticket to the Champions League qualification) almost throughout the entire season, but failed the post-quarantine segment of the tournament finish, having 6 defeats and 1 draw in the last 10 rounds. As a result, taking into account the penalties from the Football Federation for participating in fixing matches, the team took only 4th place (20 wins, 4 draws and 8 defeats – total 67:37). In principle, LASK started the new season well: they got 7 points in the Austrian championship for 4 rounds (2 wins, a draw and a defeat – total 5:5); passed Sporting in the LE qualifier (away victory 4:1).
