Preview
Sharjah, Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings. There’s only one way this game is going unless Chennai can manufacture something extraordinary from their overseas batsmen – Shane Watson, Sam Curran or Faf du Plessis. The short boundaries come to the liking of Delhi’s batsmen while Chennai are more about strike rotators and nursling.
Chennai, for all their issues with the bat, have bowled well this season and have picked up the third most number of wickets by any team this year after eight games each. Delhi, meanwhile, have the highest and have arguably the best bowling line-up in the competition this year.
Chennai’s batting hasn’t picked up like their bowling and even with Sam Curran opening, their start last game was less than ideal. At Sharjah, against Kagiso Rabada and co their task will be cut out, especially considering how lethal Nortje and Rabada can be against the Chennai batsmen.
Team news and predicted XI
Delhi will wait on the fitness of Rishabh Pant and if he isn’t fit, Marcus Stoinis will continue batting up the order and Alex Carey could still be the keeper with Ajinkya Rahane in the XI.
CSK, on the other hand, have a strong bowling attack but need to possibly add Imran Tahir or Josh Hazlewood to their ranks at the expense of Dwayne Bravo. They might have MS Dhoni down the order but the skipper is yet to fire when it matters. Sam Curran remains the key player for them for this game.
Predicted XI
Chennai Super Kings
Sam Curran, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, MS Dhoni, DJ Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma
Delhi Capitals
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada
Fantasy tips
- Shane Watson has looked in good touch and with the short boundaries here, he might just come good. Gamble on him as a captain.
- Sharjah has beocme slower, so banking on spinners is ideally a good option. But that can’t come at the expense of Rabada, Nortje and Chahar
- MS Dhoni, for all the criticism, is still making enough runs to give your fantasy team a boost.
- Faf du Plessis and Ambati Rayudu are the bankable options but you might have room only for one with Iyer being a must pick.
- Prithvi Shaw is as dangerous as anybody on this wicket and is a must pick.
- Sam Curran’s fantasy value is sky high now that he is opening the batting and bowling in the powerplay and death overs.
Fantasy XI
MS Dhoni
Faf du Plessis
Shreyas Iyer
Prithvi Shaw
Shane Watson
Axar Patel
Marcus Stoinis
Sam Curran
Kagiso Rabada
Anrich Nortje
Deepak Chahar
