KL Rahul and MS Dhoni

KL Rahul and MS Dhoni Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL

CSK have been dominating Punjab Kings in the past few matches and the head-to-head record in IPL between those two teams stand at 14-9 in favour of CSK. CSK have had many memorable performances against PBKS in IPL over the years like defending a below-par total of 116 in 2009, Dhoni's Dharamshala knock in 2010 and many more. CSK have been a reckoning force against Punjab Kings over the years and Dhoni's men will be eager to prove a point in this match.

The bowling department of PBKS has been a concern for them as we saw in the last match where they struggled to defend a total of 221 vs Rajasthan Royals. CSK's bowling also looks off-colour this season as they lack a quality fast bowler in critical situations. It will be interesting to see how both teams approach this game as CSK rely more on their all-round combination while Punjab's strength is their top-order batting.

Let us have look at some of the important numbers before this game:

Most runs for PBKS [Among Current Players] vs CSK - KL Rahul (262 runs)

Most runs for CSK [Among Current Players] vs PBKS - Suresh Raina (705 runs)

Most wickets for PBKS [Among Current Players] vs CSK - Mohammed Shami (2 wickets)

Most wickets for CSK [Among Current Players] vs PBKS - Dwayne Bravo (14 wickets)

200 - MS Dhoni will play his 200th match for CSK  [176 matches for CSK in IPL and 24 matches for CSK in CL T20]

4 - Suresh Raina needs two more sixes to become only the 4th Indian player to have 200 sixes in IPL.

Most sixes in IPL (by an Indian player)

MS Dhoni - 216
Rohit Sharma - 215
Virat Kohli - 201
Suresh Raina - 198*

88 - Both Chris Gayle and KL Rahul are on the verge of breaking the David Miller record who has hit most sixes for PBKS in IPL history.

Most sixes for PBKS in IPL

David Miller - 87
Chris Gayle - 86*
KL Rahul - 85*

32 - Shardul Thakur needs two more wickets to become the 32nd Indian player to scalp 50 wickets in IPL.

12 - KL Rahul needs 67 more runs to become the 12th Indian player to complete 5000 runs in T20s.

5 - Faf du Plessis needs 70 more runs to become only the 5th South African player to complete 6000 runs in T20s.

59.5 - MS Dhoni has the highest batting average vs PBKS in IPL [minimum 10 innings].

Highest batting average vs PBKS in IPL

MS Dhoni - 59.5*
Faf du Plessis - 55.77*
D.Warner - 53.29
C.Gayle - 53.13
M.Tiwary - 52.40

2 - CSK have defeated PBKS by a margin of 10 wickets twice in IPL history and no other team in IPL has managed to achieve this feat.