Lying last at points table, DD sees redemption against a powerful CSK

Delhi Daredevils, which found its new captain lucky as it beat a powerful Kolkata Knight Riders last Friday and returned to winning ways, faces an uphill task when it braces for its battle tonight against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the latter’s ‘new home’ at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium, Pune.

Shreyas Iyer, who has taken over as captain of DD midway through the tournament after ‘son of the soil’ Gautham Gambhir chose to step down after a series of defeats, played a captain’s knock to take Delhi to 219, which effectively put the match out of KKR’s reach as it lost by plenty of runs.  Whether he would be able to motivate his team against a team which performs very well in key matches under a battle-hardened veteran in M.S. Dhoni is the million-dollar question now!

Iyer and Prithvi Shah (captain of India’s world cup winning under-19 team) scored majorly against KKR but what would have gladdened the hearts of the bosses of DD was that Avesh Khan and Liam Plunkett, who were included in the team only recently, did very well with the ball along with New Zealander Trent Boult, DD’s strike bowler.

Iyer-led DD might smell a ‘weakling’ in CSK which has lost its strike bowler Deepak Chahar who limped off the last match against Mumbai Indians with a hamstring strain and has been ruled out of action at least for two weeks.  Mark Wood of England may replace Chahar.  England all-rounder David Willey may replace Shane Watson at the top for CSK, which looks to return to its winning ways against an opponent.  In head-to-head matches, CSK clearly holds the edge with a 11-5 win-loss record.

It is time for the likes of Jadeja and Karn Sharma, the spin-twins of CSK, to come to the party and stifle the DD batsmen tonight at Pune.  While the CSK might pride itself as having the best batting order among all the participating teams, it still has to pull itself up in leaking runs in the ‘death’ overs if it wants to continue its winning streak.

Players to watch out for:

CSK: Rayudu, Raina, Dhoni
DD: Prithvi, Shreyas, Trent Boult