IPL-2023: Chennai Super Kings to take on Delhi Capitals at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai

In IPL Cricket, Chennai Super Kings will take on Delhi Capitals at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai at 7:30 this evening.

This is usually that time of the season when the top teams are consolidating their positions and bracing for a Playoffs run. IPL 2023 has proved to be an antithesis to such notions and therefore Michael Hussey was quick to state that his side wasn’t pursuing that line of conversation at all. Chennai Super Kings though can see a tiny chasm between themselves and the chasing pack. With two of their three remaining games to be played at home, they will believe they can maintain, maybe even extend, the daylight to the logjam right behind.

Victory against Mumbai Indians, as MS Dhoni conceded, was most opportune. Not only did it create the aforementioned breathing room, it helped arrest a strange, three-game sequence without a win. It would appear that particular game also helped brush the cobwebs off some other arrowheads in their quiver. Deepak Chahar found his PowerPlay efficacy to supplement the team’s middle-overs smarts as well as the Pathirana-provided thrust at the death.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals too are a team that don’t have to peer into the past too much, given how their form has progressively ebbed coming into the pointy end of the league. “Our cricket is absolutely on the improve,” exclaimed Ricky Ponting in a dressing room after the cruise past RCB in the last game. After taking five straight Ls, they’ve won four of their last five and with an all-foreign top-four, appear to have discovered the batting oomph that had been missing for so long. True to the cliche therefore, the points table is unlikely to dictate how this game will play out. This season has taught us that much already.

Chennai Super Kings Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Deepak Chahar, Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, Ambati Rayudu, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Akash Singh, Ben Stokes, Dwaine Pretorius, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, RS Hangargekar, Bhagath Varma, Nishant Sindhu

Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner(c), Philip Salt(w), Mitchell Marsh, Rilee Rossouw, Manish Pandey, Aman Hakim Khan, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya, Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel, Praveen Dubey, Abishek Porel, Sarfaraz Khan, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman, Anrich Nortje, Rovman Powell, Priyam Garg, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal