Preview
Both teams have got off to winning starts, one at home and one away. Now it’s Delhi Capitals’ turn to play their first home game, and Chennai Super Kings’ to test themselves on the road. If the Feroz Shah Kotla rolls out a seam-friendly track to suit the home team, it will present Super Kings an interesting challenge. Their win against Royal Challengers Bangalore came on a slow, square turner, and was engineered by an attack with three frontline spinners.
With Lungi Ngidi ruled out for the entire season, and with no replacement named as yet, do Super Kings have the pace resources to compete across a range of conditions? In terms of options, if the Kotla pitch is anything between flat and seaming, they could play David Willey ahead of one of the spinners.
For Delhi, everything fell into place against Mumbai thanks to Rishabh Pant’s incredible unbeaten 78. That innings put concerns over their selection – they picked six bowlers and had Keemo Paul batting at No. 6 – on the backburner, but they could re-emerge if Delhi go with a similar combination and lose a few early wickets.
It’s likely to be less of an issue when Chris Morris is available for selection, but that might have to wait until Delhi’s next game, against Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday. Morris only flew in to India on Monday, a day after playing a T20I for South Africa against Sri Lanka.
Probable XI:
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Colin Ingram, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Trent Boult/Sandeep Lamichhane, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma
Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir
Intersting Facts:
– CSK have a 4-2 head-to-head advantage over Delhi at Feroz Shah Kotla – and an overall tally of 12-6.
– Harbhajan Singh is the joint-highest wicket-taker against Delhi (21 wickets in 20 matches) with Lasith Malinga.
– Delhi and CSK were the two best batting sides in IPL 2018 as far as average and run rate was concerned.
Prediction
Delhi Capitals will win the match.
