The gloves are off: A sneak peek before the match between young Delhi and experienced Chennai
In one of the promotional videos this season, Rishabh Pant calls MS Dhoni his guru (teacher) but warns him he will come down heavily when his Delhi Capitals face Chennai Super Kings.
In the two matches, they have played against each other, Dhoni has emerged the superior, scoring more runs and guiding his team home comfortably. On the eve of the third tie between them and with a final berth at stake, Pant has his tail up with two successive match-winning knocks.
Spin will be the threat for tonight
The Qualifier 2 will be played on an adjacent track, meaning it will again be a sticky wicket with support for spinners.
A batting line up with only Shikhar Dhawan high on experience, Delhi will have to be mature against a side that relies almost entirely on experience. With Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo besides Dhoni in their dugout, the Iyer-Pant-Shaw trio will have to make use of Wednesday’s Eliminator experience on the pitch count. The big threat for them will be Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir, as pointed out by Prithvi Shaw.
For The Record
- Shikhar Dhawan is DC’s highest scorer this season with 503 runs at an average of 35.92 and strike rate of 135.94 in 15 innings. This is the third time he has scored over 500 runs in IPL – 569 runs in 2012 and 501 runs in 2016.
- Harbhajan needs two wickets to become the fourth bowler to take 150 wickets in IPL.
- CSK will become the second team after MI to complete 100 wins if they win.
