Richard Mann previews the opening weekend of IPL 2019 with reigning champions Chennai Super Kings hosting Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Recommended bets: IPL, Mar 23-24
Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad (24 Mar)
Two of the most successful sides in IPL history go head to head on Sunday and in what should provide a good early look at two of the leading contenders for silverware this year.
2014 winners Kolkata enjoyed another solid campaign last term, finishing third in the league table, and they look primed for another bold show with their exciting spin attack and dangerous array of batting talent leaving them with most boxes ticked.
Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell will continue to be vital cogs in the Kolkata wheel and the fitness of the latter will be particularly important given his all-round skills in all three facets of the game.
Home advantage is another boost for Kolkata as they bid to make a winning start to this year's competition but in the Sunrisers, they meet a high-class outfit with a real pedigree in this event.
Winners in 2016, the boys in orange made the final again last year and as alluded to in my outright preview here, the case for backing them for title glory this time around is very strong.
A bowling attack featuring the likes of Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar - two of the best T20 bowlers on the planet - is arguably the strongest in the competition and last year's leading IPL runscorer Kane Williamson will have the assistance of the returning David Warner and new signing Martin Guptill this time around.
A terrific clash is in store between two strong outfits but it's one I'm happy to sit out.
Mumbai Indians v Delhi Capitals (24 Mar)
Mumbai Indians are another of the giants of the IPL having lifted the trophy on three occasions already.
As is so often the case in franchise cricket, consistency and continuity has proven key to their success with captain Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga and Keiron Pollard pillars of the Mumbai side for a number of seasons.
With the Pandya brothers now having emerged as the next generation of stars from this cricket-obsessed city, the future certainly looks bright for the Mumbai Indians but they are notoriously slow starters in this competition and face a tricky opening match against the Dehli Capitals.
Five wins last season probably didn't do Dehli's efforts justice as exciting home-grown batsman Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer shot to prominence and in Ricky Ponting's second season as head coach, I expect them to fare much better this year.
Shikhar Dhawan has been brought in to bolster an already strong batting line-up and with the likes of Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada in the bowling ranks, Dehli's squad certainly has a formidable look to it with a nice mix of international stars and hungry, young Indian talent.
Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore (23 Mar)
Reigning champions Chennai Super Kings kick off IPL 2019 by taking on Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai on Saturday morning and a wonderful atmosphere inside a stadium that rarely fails to deliver can be expected.
Shane Watson inspired the Super Kings to title glory 12 months ago, a belligerent hundred blowing away a strong Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling attack, and he and his captain, MS Dhoni, continue to prove that T20 cricket is not necessarily a young man's game.
With Super Kings stalwarts Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina still going strong, Chennai have been able to keep hold of their core of high-class and experienced T20 performers who a successful side continues to be built around.
Nevertheless, keeping faith with an ageing group of players does have its drawbacks and there is little doubt that the Super Kings will be one of the poorer fielding outfits in the competition again this year.
There is plenty of quality in the bowling stocks, though, with Bravo, South African Lungi Ngidi and Shardul Thakur giving Dhoni plenty of control and the ability to pick up regular wickets.
Thakur was one of the surprise packages of last year's IPL, his bustling pace and impressive seam movement seeing him finish the season as the leading wicket-taker for the Super Kings with 16 scalps and he returns for the 2019 edition in excellent form.
Five wickets in his last two T20 domestic outings - 2/21 and 3/15 - suggests his bowling is in good working order and he looks worth siding with at 18/5 to make a strong start on Saturday.
Thakur and his bowling colleagues will have to be on their mettle, though, with the Royal Challengers top order one of the most intimidating in the competition.
Kohli, AB de Villiers and West Indian sensation Shimron Hetmyer help form what should be a stellar batting line-up but despite those big names, and Chris Gayle in years gone by, the Royal Challengers are the perennial underachievers of the IPL and the Super Kings might be too well drilled for them again on Saturday.
