The Chennai Super Kings will watch with their fingernails in their mouths as the Lahore Lions look to pull off a big win over the Perth Scorchers in a bid to overhaul CSK and move into the Champions League T20 semifinals.
CSK are currently in second place, behind the unbeaten Kolkata Knight Riders, on 10 points with a win taking the Lahore Lions level with the IPL team. However, MS Dhoni's team do have the better net run rate of +0.945 at the moment, leaving the Lions with the job of not just beating the Perth Scorchers in their CLT20 2014 match in Bangalore, but beating them handsomely.
It is a similar scenario that the Mumbai Indians found themselves in during IPL 2014, the only difference being that CSK can do nothing but watch on TV.
The Lahore Lions will take the confidence from a victory over the Dolphins in their last match, even if they will rue the fact that they could and should have won the match a lot more convincingly than the eventual 16 runs, with a brilliant innings from Robert Frylinck putting paid to those hopes.
"It should have gotten over early," Lahore Lions all-rounder Saad Nasim told CLT20's official website. "We should have won by 40-50 runs.
"But, Frylinck played an outstanding innings and took the match so close. We would have liked to win it more convincingly given the possibility of a net run-rate scenario."
Perth Scorchers will be the team that CSK depend on to do them a favour, with the Australian side, who are already out of contention for the semifinals following their loss to the Chennai Super Kings a couple of days back, looking to finish their CLT20 2014 campaign on a high.
"Unfortunately we couldn't hold our nerves that in our last two games," Scorchers bowling coach Adam Griffith said. "Against the IPL teams in particular, we played better cricket for most part of the game but couldn't finish it off.
"Against the Dolphins Mitch [Marsh] hit two sixes to finish it, so we have shown that we can do that. We have to get better at executing our plans.
"It is something that we have actually done very well in the past. In the Big Bash last year, most of our games came down to the last over and we got over the line most times.
"It does boil down a little bit to the fact that the IPL teams have a lot of international experience. But we have been in such situations before and we are confident we can get over the line."
CSK will certainly hope the Scorchers hold their nerve against the Lions.
Where to Watch Live
CLT20 2014 Match 15 is scheduled for an 8 pm IST (3.30 pm BST, 10.30 am ET) start in Bangalore, with live coverage in India on Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1. Viewers can also catch the match via free live streaming online on Starsports.com.
Europe and UK viewers can watch the match on Eurosport or via an online live stream courtesy the channel's Player. US viewers catch the action on ESPN or Watch ESPN, and the game can be live streamed by audience in Canada on Watch Sportsnet.
Middle East and North Africa viewers can watch the match on OSN or OSN Play, while South African and Sub Saharan Africa can do the same on SuperSport or their online option.
Rest of the world viewers can watch the match via free live streaming on StarSports.com.
