The first week of action in the Indian Premier League ends in Dubai on Friday when the Delhi Capitals face the Chennai Super Kings in a match that could easily be refined as youth against experience in an intriguing battle.
Delhi Capitals are the younger side of the two and they go into the match with a win from their only game. The more experienced Chennai Super Kings have played a couple of matches in the event and have a win and a defeat from them.
Delhi Capitals
After the way they won their first match the Delhi Capitals could be forgiven for thinking they are invincible in this tournament. At no stage did they look like winning it but amazingly they pulled a rabbit out of the hat and came out with a Super Over win from a match they were dead and buried in. It just shows what can be achieved when you have a quality bowling attack with bowlers that can hold their nerve under pressure.
That will serve the Capitals well for the remainder of the season because there is nothing better for a team than to win a game when they did not play well. What makes the win even better is the response Kings XI Punjab showed on Thursday. Delhi weren’t perfect in that first game by any means. There is a heck of a lot more to come from their top order and that only makes them even more dangerous in this match.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings made a good start to their season when they knocked off the defending champions Mumbai Indians but they fell apart in their second one when they came up against the Rajasthan Royals. They will be looking to get some consistency back in their game but there was the odd concern that these wickets aren’t bringing out the best in their squad. It could just be that they are not designed to go well at Sharjah which is a probably they’ll need to overcome later in the tournament.
There has been positives and negatives to the start of the season for the Super Kings. In the main their batting has been in decent order and most of their top players have contributed but they have been exposed with the ball at different times in both their outings. That is something that needs addressing and I would expect a change in personnel for this one with Imran Tahir surely high up on the list of players ready to come in. The injury to Ambati Rayudu is a concern too.
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Key Men
Marcus Stoinis had a brilliant game in the opening match for the Delhi Capitals and it will be interesting to see if he can keep up that form as he can help them win matches with the bat and the ball making him invaluable.
MS Dhoni has chosen to come in very late in both innings and it hasn’t really worked out. His team have a much higher win percentage when he bats up the order so it will be interesting to see if he can be coaxed to come in earlier and control the innings.
Betting
The Chennai Super Kings were my pick for this tournament and I still think that in time they will come good but I can’t avoid the Delhi Capitals here given who the Super Kings are missing for this match. Ambati Rayudu is a huge loss to the batting but it is the all-round skills of Dwayne Bravo that is missing as well, especially at the death where the Super Kings have been poor so far. When they work out their best order and get their big players back they’ll come good but they have to be opposed here.
Delhi Capitals won their opening match and there is a lot of natural improvement to come from them because only really Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer in their side had played anything close to recently so they will improve for the run. Their bowling looks to be in good form even this early in the competition and with plenty more in them with the bat the Capitals are going to be hard to stop if that comes out here. At odds against they are my bet.
Tips
WON – Back Delhi Capitals to beat Chennai Super Kings for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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