Match Center

They say each and every game is important in the ever-competitive Indian Premier League, and match number 17 will be no different, as the Chennai Super Kings host the high-flying Delhi Capitals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The Capitals are one of the only two teams that have been unbeaten this season, having won two in two. If their first win against LSG was a come-from-behind one, then their second win was nothing short of stamping authority, as they dominated SRH from the get-go. If in the first game the lower order won it for them, then in the second game their top order contributed immensely. At the top of the order, the ever-young Faf du Plessis did find his touch in the last game, as he scored a fifty. The likes of Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs also contributed with handy knocks. KL Rahul’s return is a big boost, as he too played a small little cameo. DC’s dominance in the last game was such that they didn’t require the batting services of their heroes from the first game, Ashutosh Sharma and Vipraj Nigam. In the first game we saw a miraculous effort from Ashutosh and Vipraj that saw DC winning from a position of 65/5 chasing 210. In the bowling department, Mitchell Starc has led from the front, having taken 8 wickets in 2 games, which includes a 5-fer in the last one. He has been ably supported by Kuldeep Yadav, who has gotten 5 wickets in the 2 games. So overall, it seems DC currently are ticking off a lot of boxes, as a result of which they are sitting pretty in the 2nd position on the points table. On the other hand, the Chennai Super Kings are coming into the game on the back of 2 losses, as they have found their going relatively tough till now. After a comfortable win against MI in the first game, they lost by a big margin against RCB in the second one and then lost a very close game against RR in their last fixture. For them, there have been quite a few issues. In the bowling powerplay, Khaleel Ahmed has still not found an able partner to bowl with him. Their lower middle order seems to be lacking the firepower, and for that purpose, they did bring in Jamie Overton in the last game. These are still early days, and they would want to get their act together as soon as possible. On the positive side, their captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad, has been in superb touch, having scored 2 fifties. Rachin Ravindra, too, has been in touch with two 40-plus scores. However, their Powerplay batting hasn’t been great, as they have struggled big time in this phase, having not scored more than 45 runs in the last two games. On the bowling front, there are some positives with Khaleel Ahmed and Noor Ahmad, who have led the pace and spin bowling departments, respectively, having picked up 6 and 9 wickets apiece. Matheesha Pathirana seems to have found his touch as well, as he looked at his menacing best in the last game, where he nailed the yorkers pretty consistently. They would badly want their spin veterans Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to get into the thick of things as soon as possible. And on the batting front, they would be hoping for their middle and lower order to take some responsibility. So, coming to this upcoming afternoon game, one could expect a typical slow Chennai wicket, which could aid spin big time. With both teams having strong spin bowling attacks, who will emerge on top? Can Axar Patel's troops spin a web in Chepauk, or will the five-time champions CSK find some winning momentum? We shall find out.