The 50th match of the ongoing IPL 2019 will be played between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals in the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. This is a clash of the top two ranked teams on the points table and it is just a game which will decide the no.1 spot holder. Any slip up here for these two teams in the last stages of the tournament might also mean them ending up playing the eliminator.
Chennai Super Kings has been hit by a slew of illnesses which caused MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to miss their last match against Mumbai Indians, which CSK lost. Super Kings have been the lowest-scoring team in the Powerplay, with a run rate of 6.4 in that phase, and in the middle overs (7-15), where they have gone at 6.9. Ambati Rayudu with a strike rate of 89.49 and Kedar Jadhav with a strike rate of 96.42 has been the two slowest batsmen for the franchise. This was covered by MS Dhoni, whose 314 runs this season have come at an average of 104.66 and a strike rate of 137.11, but once he got ill, CSK slumped to 109 all out against MI.
On the other hand, DC knows that even without Dhoni, it is not an easy task to play CSK at Chepauk on that slow and sticky wicket. They have a very good away record this season winning five of six matches while having lost three in six games at home. The surface at Kotla is only matched by the surface of Chennai, which is very slow and sticky and they haven’t enjoyed batting at all on such surfaces.
The match will definitely be one of the most competitive ones in the tournament.
MS Dhoni is back to lead Chennai Super Kings which will be a massive boost for the home team. Kagiso Rabada and Ishant Sharma are missing out for Delhi Capitals due to niggles.
Toss: Delhi Capitals won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Playing XIs:
CSK: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (w/c), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir.
DC: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (w), Colin Ingram, Sherfane Rutherford, Axar Patel, Jagadeesha Suchith, Chris Morris, Amit Mishra, Trent Boult.
