Chennai eyes on playoff, Delhi will try to maintain winning streak
With the playoff tussle heating up in the penultimate leg of the preliminary phase of the Indian Premier League, Chennai Super Kings would look to cement their position with another win against newly confident Delhi Capitals on Wednesday. Chennai have returned to winning ways after defeating Mumbai Indians in the last match and would like to take two more points by defeating Delhi, who were seen struggling in the initial phase of the tournament. Chennai defeated Mumbai Indians in a low-scoring match on Saturday, in which the role of its bowlers, especially Matisha Pathirana, was crucial. Chennai achieved the target easily on the basis of innings of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway and Shivam Dubey.
Top-order batsmen Conway (457 runs), Gaikwad (292 runs), Shivam Dubey (290 runs) and Ajinkya Rahane (245 runs) have done well for Chennai but the middle order has failed. Ambati Rayudu 95 runs in 11 matches Has been able to score only runs while Ravindra Jadeja has scored 92 runs in 11 matches. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has played brief attacking innings but he comes very low in the batting order. The team will be praying that the top-order stays in form and doesn’t have to go down to the middle order in crucial matches. In bowling, Tushar Deshpande has definitely taken 19 wickets but his economy rate has been more than ten, due to which Chennai has suffered many times.
Jadeja may not have been able to walk with the bat but has been successful in bowling. On the other hand, Pathirana would like to continue his excellent form. Delhi Capitals batsmen have not lived up to the expectations but Phil Salt has emerged as a match winner. Captain David Warner is not in his familiar form while Mitchell Marsh and Rovman Powell have also not done much. Delhi have kept their hopes alive by winning four of the last five matches. They will have to win every match and beating Chennai at their stronghold Chepauk is not going to be easy. For this, Delhi batsmen will have to come down with full homework against Chennai’s spin attack.
At the same time, bowlers will have to find ways to send Conway and Gaikwad to the pavilion cheaply. Delhi’s bowling will depend on Ishant Sharma, Enrich Norkia, Marsh, spinner Kuldeep Yadav and Akshar Patel. Squads: Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (Captain), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangergekar, Dwayne Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, M Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh , Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, Mahesh Tikshna, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes, Sheikh Rashid, Nishant Sindhu, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Mandal, Bhagat Verma, Akash Singh.
Delhi Capitals: David Warner (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Hakim Khan, Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Akshar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Rovman Powell, Riley Rossouw, Anrich Norkia, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakaria, Mukesh Kumar, Phil Salt, Lungi Engidi, Praveen Dubey, Lalit Yadav, Ripple Patel, Vicky Ostwal, Ishant Sharma, Manish Pandey, Kamlesh Nagerkoti and Yash Dhul. Time: The match will start at 7.30 PM.
