Toss Delhi Capitals chose to bat v Chennai Super Kings
Delhi Capitals chose to bat in their first home game of the season at Feroz Shah Kotla, with legspinner Amit Mishra slotting in for New Zealand paceman Trent Boult. They, however, stuck with their six-strong bowling unit, with Keemo Paul still the preferred allrounder despite Chris Morris’ recent arrival.
Both captains were happy with the result of the toss, with MS Dhoni suggesting that he would have bowled first anyway in what is Chennai’s first away game of IPL 2019. “It (the pitch) felt a bit tacky, so it’s not bad for us to bowl first,” Dhoni, who announced an unchanged XI, said at the toss.
The pitch is devoid of grass, and historical data suggests Kotla has been a good spinning pitch, backing up Delhi’s decision to opt for Mishra’s legspin over Boult’s new-ball wiles.
Indeed, Kotla is usually even more spin-friendly than Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, where Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir shared six cheap wickets in the IPL opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday.
While Chennai have had a couple of days off since then, Delhi have had a quick turnaround since they won their season opener on Sunday night, and travelled back to New Delhi on Monday. While both teams won their first matches of this season, Chennai go into this encounter with a far superior head-to-head record, having won 12 of the 18 games the two teams have played against each other over the years.
Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Colin Ingram, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Keemo Paul, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Ishant Sharma
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 Ravindra Jadeja, 6 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Imran Tahir
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