Preview : M47 - CSK vs RR

After five straight wins to begin their Pepsi IPL 2015 campaign, Rajasthan Royals have gone off-track with four losses and a couple of rain-washed games. With the league phase of the tournament now at its fag end, the once table-toppers are fighting for a place in the final four. And their next challenge is beating Chennai Super Kings in Chennai.

The hosts are smarting from a very rare loss at home – a six-wicket defeat against the Mumbai Indians. And Tim Southee, the RR bowler, feels the wound will only make CSK an even tougher opponent.“We had one of our best games the last time we played CSK and they will be hungry to turn it around this time,” Southee said.

“We know they are tough in their own conditions and they will be tougher coming after a loss. But we have the skills in our team to counter that and we have come here to win.”Talking about RR’s own slide in form in the last few games, Southee put it down mostly to the bowling unit’s less than perfect performances.

“I don’t think we bowled as well as we could have in the last couple of games. But we did bowl well at the start of the tournament and so we are capable of it,” he said. “We were a bit off in the last couple of games but I am sure the guys will work on it and turn up with a good performance tomorrow.

“The two washouts were not ideal, but you cannot control the weather. There were a couple of games that we probably should have won. But we did get a couple of wins early on in the tournament even though we didn’t play our best cricket.

We still have two more games that we hope to win and continue the tournament all the way to the final.”One battle within the battle that the New Zealand pacer is excited about in the CSK vs RR encounter is that of bowling to his national captain, Brendon McCullum.“I am looking forward to the challenge,” he said.

“He is playing really well at the moment, playing some incredible shots and seems to be in a bit of a hurry. So, it will be nice to get one up on him and go to England (New Zealand’s next international tour) with the bragging rights.“I have bowled to him quite a bit in the nets and it will be interesting to see what happens if we are up against each other.

But there are some other dangerous players in their side and we know it is going to be a very tough game.”.

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