We are reaching the business end of the Indian Premier League campaign and the IPL 2023 season continues with one match on Wednesday as second placed Chennai Super Kings host rock bottom Delhi Capitals.
The Super Kings will guarantee a semi-final spot if they win two more matches but one win could be enough. The equation is much simpler for the Capitals. They have to win their last four matches to reach the magic 16 point mark.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings have put themselves in a great position to reach the latter stages of the competition once again, and it won’t be lost on them that the first set of matches in the playoffs take place on their home ground which potentially gives them a further advantage to make the final should they manage to finish in the top two of the table at the end of the season. They are in control of that situation. If they win their last three matches they will finish in the top two and get a second crack at the final should they need it.
The Chennai matches in the earlier part of the season were high scoring encounters. There is a feeling that was down to a couple of injuries in their bowling unit but the longer the campaign has gone on their bowling has got going and now you sense that the Super Kings can win high or low scoring matches, a point emphasised further with the return of Deepak Chahal who can keep teams much more in check in the opening six overs with the ball.
Delhi Capitals
This was going to be a tough season for the Delhi Capitals when the extent of the injury to Rishabh Pant was revealed and it has lived up to the billing. The injury didn’t just deny Delhi a world class operator in this format of the game but it took their captain from them and once they installed an overseas player as captain they were always going to be further up against it. It is no surprise that two of the three teams with an overseas captain currently occupy the bottom two places in the league.
The big problem has been that the best way to replace Pant in terms of the firepower he brings with the bat was an international player and that leaves just two other slots and they have been exposed as a result of that. The positive for Delhi is that they are slowly getting the right pieces in place to launch a strong finish to the season but the fear is they might have left it too late. If they are going to come good their three overseas batters need to put in some exceptional performances.
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Key Players
The Delhi batting runs out quite early in the order so if Deepak Chahar can take a couple of early wickets it would really have the Chennai Super Kings on top in the game, particularly if Dave Warner is one of them.
Phil Salt has had an all or nothing look to his IPL so far but when he gets in and gets going he goes big and if he can survive that initial Chahal spell then he should fancy his chances of another big score which Delhi might well need from him.
Betting
A lot of matches involving the Chennai Super Kings have been high scoring affairs but that hasn’t always been the case here in Chepauk where two of the last three first innings have been under 140. I don’t necessarily think that will change here. I’m not suggesting that the first innings will be under 140 but the return of Deepak Chahar changes things massively. I mentioned earlier in the tournament that the Super Kings were going at 10 an over with the seamers in the powerplay. Chahar is usually economical up front and comes into this match off the back of a spell of 2/18.
The strength of the Delhi Capitals has been their bowling and even without Anrich Nortje I expect that to ring true here. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav have been hard to get away throughout the tournament while Mitchell Marsh is delivering with the ball too. Spin doesn’t always take wickets here but it does dry up the runs and there are five leading spinners on show in these two teams. Delhi run out of batting quite early in proceedings and that all makes me think that the 340.5 run line is a few too high.
Tips
Back Under 340.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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