Before the last five games, the Delhi Capitals were in a bad spot. They had lost five games in a row, and David Warner’s performance was the only thing that made them feel good. Four wins out of five games since then have given that sputtering campaign a boost. If they were looking at the bottom of the barrel, then the playoffs are no longer completely out of reach. The fourth-placed Lucknow Super Giants are only three points ahead of them.
Any way you look at it, it is still a long shot. And the fight to stay in the game starts with a trip to Chepauk, where they will play the Chennai Super Kings. Even though they are 3-2 this season, it is not an easy place to visit. Even so, Delhi’s track record doesn’t make us feel better. In eight trips to the MA Chidambaram Stadium, they have only won twice. Their last win there was in 2010.
Both teams are strong because they just won their last games. On the same night, CSK beat the Mumbai Indians by six wickets, and DC beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 188 runs with 20 balls left. The win for CSK came after they had lost three straight games.
The biggest reason for DC’s comeback is that Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel have kept their opponents’ scores below 140 in three of their last five games. As the match goes on, Chennai’s pitch could slow down, which could help Delhi.
It won’t be easy since CSK’s batsmen have been easily scoring runs. Devon Conway scored 458 runs, Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 384 runs, Shivam Dube scored 290 runs, and Ajinkya Rahane scored 245 runs quickly. In a change from how they used to do things, they start strong and try to keep the pace going. This season, CSK has scored 50 or more runs in eight out of ten powerplay overs, which is a scoring rate of 9.5.
