At one stage of the 2015 Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) season, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals looked absolute certainties to finish in the top two positions at the end of the regular season.
However, both teams have stumbled over the last few matches, and their meeting at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai on Sunday takes on added significance.
The two sides are level on 14 points, although the Super Kings have a game in hand.However, after Friday’s stunning win for the Mumbai Indians in Chennai, the two leading sides have only a three point advantage over the fifth positioned Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have played a game less than Chennai, and two games less than the Royals.
Whoever wins Sunday’s contest should all but ensure that they will be playing in the knockout phase of the tournament, for the losers the nervous wait to secure qualification will go on.
Particularly if the losers are the Royals, who have only one qualifying match remaining after Sunday. In that final game on the penultimate day of the season, they face a home match against the reigning Champions the Kolkata Knight Riders. They will not want to be faced with a must win match at that stage of the tournament.
The teams met at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad earlier in the campaign, and the Royals took the honours, winning by eight wickets with 10 balls remaining.
The Super Kings needed a partnership of 91 in 11 overs from Dwayne Bravo and skipper MS Dhoni to raise the team’s total to 156-4. After Rahane and the Royals own captain Shane Watson had put on 144 in 16 overs, then the game was effectively over, and the home side eased home a couple of overs later, despite the loss of Australian batsman, Steven Smith.