Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings: Yuvraj Singh vs MS Dhoni?

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The first edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), IPL 2008, kicked off on Friday. To be honest, the opening match was not exciting as Bangalore Royal Challengers failed to live up to the expectation, while Kolkata Knight Riders was on fire.

However, you can surely expect an exciting match tomorrow between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings. No doubt, both teams have some world class players besides some potential local players. Chennai Superstars has a star studded batting line up in the presence of Matthew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Michael Hussey, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, while Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan is there to offer his spin magic for Chennai Superstars.

Similarly, Kings XI Punjab batting line up includes Mahela Jayawardene, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara. For bowling, Kings XI Punjab has Brett Lee, Sreesanth, Kyle Mills and some other local young bowlers. So, you can at least expect an exciting match tomorow, if not mind blowing. The match will take place at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh and the kick off time is 17:00 local (11:30 GMT).

However, can you see a fight within the fight? Do you think that there could be another competition between the two captains: Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni? Both of them are capable of playing quick fire knocks which is badly needed in Twenty20 format. More than that, Yuvraj and Dhoni had been among the top favorites as the future captain of Indian cricket team, before the selectors turned to Dhoni to give the captaincy of India Twenty20 and ODI team. Then, Dhoni did not take time to prove the decision right by leading India to win the ICC World Twenty20 Championship last year and his captaincy record in ODI is also satisfactory so far. Well, it does not mean that Yuvraj had no part behind the Indian triumph in ICC World Twenty20 Championship. In fact, he was one of the top performers of that tournament with his devastating batting. He played the fasted half century of Twenty20 format in that tournament against England and during that innings, he also hit six 6s in an over, the only instance in Twenty20 cricket so far.

Now, it seems that Yuvraj Singh might have some aspiration in his mind to prove his captaincy skill and it is perhaps the biggest stage to show that he has it in him to lead India one day. On the other hand, Dhoni must not want to lose the match against Yuvraj Singh’s side. Perhaps, this is the first time, Yuvraj and Dhoni will face each other as the captain of their respective sides and thus, the competition between Yuvraj and Dhoni come in the forefront of minds of cricket fans.

As I mentioned earlier that Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, both are capable of scoring quickly, their teams and fans would expect a typical innings from them in the match. As it is a twenty20 match, hard hitting batting style is always welcomed. So, much of the success of Chennai and Punjab sides will depend on the performance of Yuvraj and Dhoni. Now, let us see who are going to win the battle.