IPL
Murali Vijay during the second Qualifying match of the Indian Premier League ( IPL) 2012 between The Chennai Superkings and the Delhi Daredevils held at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on the 25th May 2012Photo by Ron Gaunt/IPL/SPORTZP

The Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are meeting for the first time in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2013). They will take on each other at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi on Thursday.

Overview:

The DD topped the table in the last season but they are in dire straits in the sixth edition of the IPL, having lost all the five matches played so far. Their performance has improved, forcing Royal Challengers Bangalore to a Super Over in the previous match but they have to put their acts together and win the upcoming matches in order to stay in the contention.

The CSK have four points after winning two of the four games played so far. The two-time champions have lost two of the three matches played at home, which will worry the think-tank of the team. The 24-run defeat to Pune Warriors India in the previous match must have wounded the team. They will be keen to get back to winning ways.

Previous Meetings:

CSK and DD have met 10 times in the past with the former winning six and the latter four. DD topped the table in the last season but CSK eliminated them in the Qualifier 2.

Team News:

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag showed some spark in the previous match against RCB but failed to make it big. Skipper Mahela Jayawardena, David Warner, Manprit Juneja and others should pull up their socks and perform.

In the bowling department, they have Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav, Morne Morkel, Johan Botha, Siddarth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem and Irfan Pathan. Yadav took two wickets for 22 runs in the previous match.

Chennai Super Kings: They have a good batting line-up in skipper MS Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo and Subramaniam Badrinath but the way their top order collapsed in the previous match against PWI exposed their vulnerability. The openers need to give a good start so that big hitters like Dhoni and Raina can blast later.

In the bowling department, they have Dirk Nannes, Ankit Rajpoot, Chris Morris, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo and Ravichandran Ashwin. Albie Morkel has been kept out of the last previous matches.

Prediction:

DD are no doubt a strong team and have home ground advantage on Thursday's game but CSK seem to be a more balanced side. CSK are favourite to win.

SQUADS:

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (c), Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Manpreet Juneja, Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Royston Dias, Siddarth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (C), Albie Morkel, Srikkanth Anirudha, Ankit Rajpoot, Baba Aparajith, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ben Laughlin, Chris Morris, Dirk Nannes, Dwayne Bravo, Francois du Plessis, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Jason Holder, Michael Hussey, Mohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Nuwan Kulasekara, R Karthikeyan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ronit More, Shadab Jakati, Subramaniam Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha

Where to Watch Live

The match will begin at 8:00 pm IST and will be telecast live on Sony Set Max channel.