IPL 2023: CSK face resurgent DC in push for play-offs spot

Chennai Super Kings enter the final lap of the ongoing Indian Premier Leagues preliminary phase looking to beat back the challenge of a resurgent Delhi Capitals here on Wednesday and get closer to a playoffs berthCSK returned to winning ways with a convincing victory over Mumbai Indians a bogey team at their fortress Chepauk and would be hoping to pick up two more points against the Capitals who have struggled in the tournament for the most partThe Super Kings trumped MI in a lowscoring game last Saturday with the bowlers Matheesha Pathirana in particular doing a good job to restrict the opposition The chase was wrapped up without much ado with contributions from Ruturaj Gaikwad Devon Conway and Shivam DubeAlso ReadSam Curran is a winner youve to back him Charl LangeveldtWhile the toporder batters Conway 457 runs Gaikwad 292 runs and Ajinkya Rahane 245 runs have been doing a great job the middleorder hasnt fired as much as the thinktank would have hoped forThe experienced Ambati Rayudu 95 runs in 11 games and Ravindra Jadeja 92 in 11 games havent got going making for a floundering middleorder Skipper M S Dhoni has managed the cameos expected of him whenever he has got inThe team will be hoping that the middleorder is not put to test in a crunch game Dhoni and the CSK fans will be praying for the likes of Rayudu Moeen Ali and Jadeja to rise to the occasion when it matters the mostThe bighitting Shivam Dube has so far collected 290 runs from 9 innings and will be eyeing bigger contributions in key gamesTushar Deshpande with 19 wickets so far has done a fine job but his economy rate of 1033 and giving away runs at crucial junctures has hurt CSK at times The captain would like him to be more thrifty with the ballJadeja as always has struck crucial blows while slinger Pathirana will be keen to continue the good run like against MIPathirana will be one bowler the Capitals including the aggressive Phil Salt who shone in the teams last game would be wary ofThe DC batters have underperformed but Salt has expressed confidence that they can turn it around in the remaining gamesSkipper David Warner has not been his usual ebullient self and the batting lineup which includes Mitchell Marsh and Rovman Powell among others has flattered to deceive As the season winds down DC managed to keep their chances alive by winning four of their last five matchesWhether the team can sneak into the top four remains to be seen They will need to perform very well if they aim to surprise CSK in their den which is easier said than doneFor that the DC batters need to come to grips with the spin challenge expected to be posed by CSK and the bowling department needs to find ways to contain the methodical Conway and Gaikwad first before dealing with the othersVeteran Ishant Sharma who seems to have rediscovered his mojo would be one to watch out for apart from pacer Anrich Nortje Marsh and the slow bowlers Kuldeep Yadav and Axar PatelTeams fromChennai Super Kings MS Dhoni captwk Akash Singh Moeen Ali Bhagath Varma Deepak Chahar Devon Conway Tushar Deshpande Shivam Dube Ruturaj Gaikwad Rajvardhan Hangargekar Ravindra Jadeja Sisanda Magala Ajay Mandal Matheesha Pathirana Dwaine Pretorius Ajinkya Rahane Shaik Rasheed Ambati Rayudu Mitchell Santner Subhranshu Senapati Simarjeet Singh Nishant Sindhu Prashant Solanki Ben Stokes Maheesh TheekshanaDelhi Capitals David Warner capt Prithvi Shaw Mitchell Marsh Sarfaraz Khan Aman Hakim Khan Abhishek Porel wk Axar Patel Khaleel Ahmed Kuldeep Yadav Rovman Powell Rilee Rossouw Anrich Nortje Mustafizur Rahaman Chetan Sakariya Mukesh Kumar Phil Salt Lungi Ngidi Praveen Dubey Lalit Yadav Ripal Patel Vicky Ostwal Ishant Sharma Manish Pandey Kamlesh Nagarkoti Yash DhullMatch Starts at 730 pm ISTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever