Delhi Daredevils look to finish on a high against Chennai Super Kings

As another disappointing season comes to an end for the Delhi Daredevils (DD), they will be hoping to cause a major upset as they take on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in what would be their penultimate game of the season.

The season will be fondly remembered by Rishabh Pant, who has set the stage alight with his amazing hitting prowess. Had MS Dhoni not had a fantastic tournament himself, there is no doubt about the fact that fans and experts would have been asking for him to be replaced by Pant by now! But, so tough is the competition in the Indian team right now that Pant will have to bide his time before another opportunity arises.

His performances with the bat have been barely backed up by his bowlers and that is the reason why they find themselves at the bottom of the table. They have had the odd brilliance from Amit Mishra or Avesh Khan, but have failed together as a unit. Sandeep Lamichhane became the first player from Nepal to play in the IPL and did an admirable job against Bangalore but even that was not enough to get them a victory.

Chennai on the other hand have had a topsy turvy run of late and have slipped a few points, even though they were brilliant in their last game against Hyderabad. With the qualifiers being moved to Kolkata, it remains to be seen how effective Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur will be for them, or for that matter at the Kotla. While these two bowled brilliantly in the last game, this fixture could well depend on the performances of Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja.

The game could also boil down to the start given by the opening combination. Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu have been the best opening combination so far in the tournament and have complemented each other really well. Delhi, on the other hand, have struggled to find a good opening partner for Prithvi Shaw. With two matches to go and none of their openers doing well, they might as well give Gautam Gambhir another crack at the top and bring back someone like a Dan Christian in place of Jason Roy.

CSK look a much more balanced team as compared to DD from all aspects. More importantly, they know how to win matches from any situation. What Delhi will be hoping for is to give their home fans something to cheer about in an otherwise disappointing season. MS Dhoni, though, wouldn’t mind another win added to his illustrious captaincy record!

Probable XI’s

Gautam Gambhir could replace Jason Roy while Dan Christian could come in for Harshal Patel. Liam Plunkett could also get a look in for Junior Dala.

Delhi Daredevils – Prithvi Shaw, Gautam Gambhir/Jason Roy, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Dan Christian/Harshal Patel, Liam Plunkett/Junior Dala, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult

Imran Tahir should come in for David Willey.

Chennai Super Kings – Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Sam Billings, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir

Trivia

• Abhishek Sharma’s 46 not out of 19 balls is the highest score by a 17-year-old in the IPL
• In their previous game, DD played Prithvi Shaw, Abhishek Sharma and Sandeep Lamichhane – the first ever instance of an IPL side fielding three players aged 18 or less
• Shane Watson became the fourth overseas player to score 3000 runs in the IPL. The others to have done so are Chris Gayle, David Warner and AB de Villiers

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