Match 43 of the 2025 Indian Premier League season brings us a crucial clash between two sides at the bottom of the table, with the Chennai Super Kings hosting the SunRisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on April 25.
For the game, here are our preview and predictions.
It’s a do-or-die contest between two former champions who are on the verge of missing the playoffs.
It has been a challenging campaign for both CSK and SRH, with both teams having won two games in eight. Both have been let down by their batters—one being too aggressive, the other not aggressive enough.
For CSK, nothing seems to be working. None of their top-order batters have been consistent, as the team look to build for the future with the inclusion of youngsters Sheikh Rasheed and Ayush Mhatre. The senior pros in the middle order are also not able to get going halfway into the season.
Shivam Dube is their highest run-scorer this season with 230 runs, but the runs have come at a pedestrian rate of 133.7. Another worrying stat for the Super Kings is that no other batter has crossed the 200-run mark yet and only stand-in skipper MS Dhoni has a strike rate over 150.
However, CSK’s bowling attack has been decent—especially during Powerplay and death overs. However, it’s the middle overs where they’ve been leaking plenty of runs. Finger spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been able to neither stifle opposition batters nor pick up wickets regularly.
The SunRisers are in a similar boat. Their batters aren’t performing and their bowlers are leaking runs—most oppositions are simply toying with them at the moment.
It was another horror showing by the SRH batters in their last match against the Mumbai Indians. The team were reeling at 35/5 at one point before a counter-punching knock of 71 off 44 by Heinrich Klaasen and a solid display of 43 off 37 by Impact Sub Abhinav Manohar helped them reach a modest 143. The form of Ishan Kishan and Nitish Kumar Reddy is particularly concerning, while the openers also haven’t done enough for SRH this season apart from a few flash-in-the-pan moments.
When you look at SRH’s bowling lineup, Harshal Patel is their highest wicket-taker with 9 scalps, while the likes of Pat Cummins (7) and Mohammed Shami (5) have underperformed massively. SRH have the worst economy rate in the league this season and the least potent attack by numbers.
Looking ahead to Match 43 at Chepauk, one has to back the Super Kings—not only because of their record against SRH over the years but also because of how poor SRH have been on slow and tacky wickets. Although last year’s runners-up have the more explosive batting lineup, under familiar conditions the CSK bowlers have more than enough to stifle them and force errors.
Fantasy XI: Heinrich Klaasen (vc), MS Dhoni, Rachin Ravindra, Abhishek Sharma, Ayush Mhatre, Shivam Dube, Aniket Verma, Ravindra Jadeja, Pat Cummins, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad (c)
Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Winners Prediction: Chennai Super Kings
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