Chennai Super Kings will play the Delhi DareDevils in the ninth match of the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Chennai have played a couple of matches before this and won and lost one each. Delhi, on the other hand have won the only previous, rain curtailed match against the Kings XI Punjab.
While Delhi are the pre-tournament favourites to clinch the trophy – and 10/11 at Sky Bet to beat the Super Kings – Chennai are 1/1 at Bet 365 to win the match. It is the presence of swashbuckling openers like Virender Sehwag (3/1 at Ladbrokes for being top Delhi batsman) and Gautam Gambhir (7/2 Ladbrokes for being top Delhi batsman) – both of whom who have had a great tour to New Zealand – that tilts the balance in their favour. The problem that Delhi may face is if either one or both these openers are dismissed before they can showcase their talent; the middle order had shown a habit of collapsing in a heap in that case. The Super Kings do possess the necessary bowling arsenal to get one up on their batsmen. This time around though, an in-form A.B de Villiers – Man-of-the-Series against Australia in the ODIs – should add the requisite stability to the middle order as well.
Chennai came back well from their first loss against Mumbai to beat the Bangalore Royal Challengers, with ease. It was thanks to a belligerent half-century by Matthew Hayden (11/4 Bet 365 for being the highest Chennai scorer again) and a three-wicket haul by M. Muralitharan (7/2 Stan James for being most economic bowler of match) that the Super Kings were able to ride home to victory. The rest of the Super Kings’ batsmen did their bit, including Suresh Raina, who is my favourite to get to a half century this time around (2/7 William Hill for at least one fifty). Raina has been one of the more consistent batsmen in the Indian line-up without being too much jazzy, and hence is one of the more under-rated ones in the line-up.
Daniel Vettori should continue in the playing eleven irrespective of the pitch, but one does get a sense that Glen McGrath may end up being a part of the starting eleven as well. And the battle between McGrath and Hayden will be one to watch out for. If McGrath – or another bowler – does get Hayden out early, McGrath (4/1 Stan James) could just end up with the most economic figures in the match. From Chennai’s perspective, Manpreet Gony has been very impressive with the kind of bounce that he manages to extract on most occasions and thus making it difficult for batsmen to hit through the line. A bit of moisture on the pitch and Gony has shown the tendency to become doubly dangerous
Dhoni’s penchant towards winning tosses (10/11 Sky Bet) make him a favourite in doing so again; and that is the only reason I have even dared to mention something as trivial and luck-dependent as this!