Chennai: Having lost their home tie against Chennai Super Kings, Yuvraj Singh would be keen to settle the score as Kings XI Punjab take on the hosts in the Indian Premier League tie at the M A Chidambaram stadium later today.

Absence of Australian players, Mike Hussey and Matthew Hayden, and Kiwi Jacob Oram gives Yuvraj a perfect chance not only to take revenge for the early defeat as well strengthen their chances of making the semifinal stage.

Punjab skipper Yuvraj would also look to fire big as he is yet to come up with a sterling innings in the tournament. He has aggregated 170 runs from seven matches with his highest being 57.

Dhoni would also be looking at the semifinal spot and would not hesitate in pushing teammates for their second victory over the Punjab team.

Dhoni has looked in a good touch in the tournament as he has scored 229 runs from eight matches with a strike rate of 145.45.

Besides Dhoni, local lads S Badrinath and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan have been among runs and young guns would again need to show maturity to help their team's cause.

However, the form of former New Zealand Captain Stephen Fleming is a worrying factor for the hosts as he has not performed well in the last three encounters.

The run-rate of Dhoni's team had seen a slide after the departure of big hitting players and the skipper would hope his batting line-up would fire and bowlers would perform to rein in the opponent batsmen.

With Laxmipathy Balaji getting in to the groove, he along with Manpreet Singh Gony would have to share the burden of taking wickets.

The bowling department of the visitors looks better with pace trio of Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, VRV Singh and spinner Piyush Chawla.

Yuvraj and his men had a strenuous three-hour net practice session on Friday though the hosts, who returned home after their four-wicket over Delhi Daredevils, remained indoors.

Source : PTI