New Delhi. Delhi Capitals will have to stop swinging between good and bad games to end their run of three consecutive painful defeats at home when they take on equally troubled Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday. Both teams have eight points each from nine matches and now five matches are left, so there is no margin for error.
On Friday night in Jaipur, Delhi batted brilliantly and won after three consecutive defeats. Two of these defeats came at home, causing much sadness in the dressing room, as Punjab Kings chased a record 265 and Royal Challengers Bangalore exposed their weak batting with fast bowling. This also includes the defeat against Gujarat Titans by one run in Kotla, which Delhi should have won.
Delhi depends on openers
The best thing for Delhi before the match against CSK is that opener Pathum Nissanka has returned to form and KL Rahul is playing well, while Mitchell Starc has given edge to the bowling. Kuldeep Yadav would also like to make a comeback after hitting three sixes in the last over in Jaipur. He has proved expensive so far in this tournament, taking only seven wickets in nine matches and giving away runs at an economy of 10.26. Middle and death overs specialist T Natarajan has also not been able to take many wickets, taking only five wickets in nine matches. Despite the ups and downs, Captain Akshar Patel has remained calm and practical. He said after the win against Rajasthan Royals, “You have to come every day and keep doing the same things. You can change things anytime. The way the boys played, both batting and bowling were excellent and I am very happy.”
Chennai’s flop middle order
Dhoni still not fit, Gaikwad’s return to form is a big relief. CSK CEO Kasi Vishwanathan told PTI that MS Dhoni is not fully fit yet, so he will not play in Kotla. Like Delhi, CSK is also in trouble and if they lose on Tuesday, they are sure to be out of the tournament again, they were at the bottom last season too. The team suffered losses in the first half of the season due to captain Ruturaj Gaikwad not getting runs from his bat, while Sanju Samson was performing the responsibility alone. But now Gaikwad has returned to form and will face Delhi after scoring two consecutive half-centuries. There has also been discussion on playing Urvil Patel at number three in place of Sarfaraz Khan.
Patel’s confidence has increased after scoring 14 runs in 12 balls against Mumbai Indians. Same is the condition of Karthik Sharma, who scored his first IPL half-century on Saturday. Two of CSK’s four wins have come against weak Mumbai Indians, one against Delhi in Chepauk. Gaikwad and his team will return with confidence from that victory.
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, Aukeeb 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, Khalil Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapaneet Singh, Mukesh Chaudhary, Noor Ahmed, Akil Hussain, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zachary Faulks, Spencer Johnson, Kartik Sharma, Aman Khan.
