What Match 15 of Pepsi IPL 2015 will be a clash between the teams occupying the top two places in the standings; Rajasthan Royals, with four wins out of four, will take on the Chennai Super Kings, who have won each of their three outings. Both teams have played a very different brand of cricket, yet have been very exciting to watch. RR go about their job in hand in a very unfussed manner and have found a new hero in each of their four matches. After James Faulkner, Deepak Hooda and Steve Smith had won them matches earlier, Ajinkya Rahane came to the party against Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring a classy half-century and guiding his team to a win. That RR have topped the table without having their regular captain Shane Watson – who missed the four matches because of a hip injury – speaks volumes of the grit and belief in the team. CSK, the most successful T20 team in the world, just know how to win. They play a very different brand of cricket – compared to RR – and are packed with match-winners, each of who has well-defined roles. In their most recent outing, they demolished the Mumbai Indians chasing down 184 in some style. It wouldn’t be wrong to count CSK as favourites before this match begins. But as they have done through the years, RR know best how and when to lift their game and punch above their weight. When 19 April 2015, 4p.m. IST Where Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad The Protagonists Given the kind of form he has been in over the last few months, one shouldn’t be surprised to see Steve Smith picked as the most important player in the RR ranks. The Australian is unconventional in so many ways, and that is perhaps one reason bowlers have found it difficult to stop him. He will have further more freedom in his match, given the likely return of the regular captain Shane Watson, and that could spell more danger for the CSK bowlers. How does one pick a match-winner in the CSK lineup? They have one match-winner following another in the batting lineup. But on the basis of recent form, one should not look beyond the opening pair of Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum. While McCullum has been a nightmare for bowlers over the last couple of months, Smith destroyed the morale of the Mumbai Indians bowling attack, hitting eight boundaries and four sixes in his 30-ball 62 in the previous match. More reason for RR to look out for Smith: he has scored more runs against RR than against any other IPL opponent. Contests to look-forward to RR’s Tim Southee will be bowling to his national captain Brendon McCullum. The battle between the two Kiwis promises to make for an exciting contest. CSK’s R Ashwin has seen a lot of Steve Smith in recent times. The off-spinner had a rare bad day in the office in the previous match, bowling just one over for 13 runs. In Smith, he has will counter one of the best players of spin; how the off-spinner shapes up in the contest against the RR batsman could have a telling effect on the result of the match. Previous Meetings No team has defeated the Rajasthan Royals more often than the Chennai Super Kings. The two teams have so far clashed on 15 occasions, with CSK emerging victors in 10 of those meetings, while RR have prevailed in the remaining 5. Among the most memorable matches between the two teams is the final of the inaugural season, when RR pipped CSK off the very last delivery to be crowned the first IPL champions. Trivia The Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings are the only two undefeated teams so far in Pepsi IPL 2015. Off the nine IPL matches played at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, six have been won by the team batting first. Off the six occasions the team batting first has scored 150 or more at the venue, they have gone on to lose only once. In the eight innings he has batted against the Rajasthan Royals, Dwayne Smith has finished as the team’s top-scorer on five occasions. What Next

The Rajasthan Royals will play the second of their three back-to-back home matches when they clash with Kings XI Punjab on April 21. The Chennai Super Kings visit the Garden City of Bengaluru on April 22 for their away fixture against Royal Challengers Bangalore.