Playoff Race: Tough competition between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings, Delhi will try to improve its record on home ground.
Delhi. To end the streak of three consecutive defeats on their home ground, Delhi Capitals will have to perform well in all three departments of the game in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) here on Tuesday. Both Delhi and Chennai teams have eight points each in nine matches. Now that they have five matches left, even a small mistake can prove costly.
Delhi Capitals achieved an important win in the match played in Jaipur on Friday after three consecutive defeats. Out of the three matches he had lost earlier, two defeats were on home ground. His team was not able to defend the score of 264 runs against Punjab Kings in Kotla while its batsmen were not able to perform against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Earlier, Delhi also had to face defeat by one run against Gujarat Titans in Kotla. The biggest positive thing for Delhi before the match against CSK is that opening batsman Pathum Nissanka is back in his rhythm.
KL Rahul is in good form, while the arrival of fast bowler Mitchell Starc has strengthened their bowling attack. Kuldeep Yadav will be looking to improve his performance after hitting three sixes in his last over in Jaipur. He has not yet been able to perform as expected in the tournament. He has taken only seven wickets in nine matches and conceded 10.26 runs per over. Death overs specialist T Natarajan also does not have a good economy rate. He has taken only five wickets in nine matches. Despite the ups and downs, captain Akshar Patel has managed to remain calm and practical.
Akshar had said after the win against Rajasthan Royals, “You have to keep practicing every day. You can always change circumstances. So I am happy with the performance of the players.” Ahead of their 10th match of the season, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan confirmed to PTI that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is not fully fit yet, due to which he will not be able to play in the match at Kotla. Like Delhi, CSK is also in a critical situation and if they are not able to win this match, then it will be certain that they will be out of the race for the playoffs.
Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad was struggling to score runs in the beginning of the season, which caused huge losses to the team. In such a situation, Sanju Samson single-handedly handled the entire burden. But Gaikwad is now back in form. He scored half-centuries in the last two matches. After the withdrawal of injured Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel batted at number three.
His inning of 14 runs in 12 balls played against Mumbai Indians will prove to be very beneficial for his confidence. The same applies to Karthik Sharma, who scored his first half-century on Saturday night. CSK have achieved two of their four wins against a Mumbai Indians team that has been struggling this season. CSK had won the match played against Delhi Capitals in Chennai and will try to take inspiration from it.
The teams are as follows:
Delhi Capitals: Abhishek Porel, KL Rahul, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Ashutosh Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, David Miller, Oqib Nabi Dar, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson, Tripura Vijay, Madhav Tiwary, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Karun Nair, T Natarajan.
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Dewald Brewis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dubey, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Ayush Mhatre, Shreyas Gopal, Jamie Overton, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapaneet Singh, Mukesh Chaudhary, Noor Ahmed, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zachary Faulks, Spencer Johnson, Karthik Sharma, Aman Khan. The match will start at 7.30 pm Indian time.
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