Shreyas Iyer and MS Dhoni
Chennai Super Kings are two-matches old in IPL 2020. They won their opener, the first game of this season, defeating the defending champions Mumbai Indians by five wickets despite the absence of star players like Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh. But the three-time IPL winners, owing to some poor bowling and debatable tactical changes, lost to Rajasthan Royals at a batting-friendly Sharjah by 16 runs. Chennai would hence look to bounce back to form when they take in a batting-heavy Delhi Capitals in Dubai on Friday. The Shreyas Iyer-led side on the other hand, had gotten of to a winning start by suriving a Super Over challenge against Kings XI Punjab last week. Delhi would hence look to make two-in-two in IPL 2020.
Head-to-head tie: Chennai have an overwhelming record against Delhi, winning 61 per cent of their matches in the rivalry - 15 off 21 meetings, which includes victory in all the three matches in IPL 2019. And in their only meeting on the UAE soil, back in 2014 IPL, Chennai had defeated Delhi in Abu Dhabi.
Crucial stats...
- The bowling figures of Ravindra Jadeja and Lungi Ngidi have been concerning in CSK's two matches in IPL 2020. Both wicketless, while the left-armer returned with figures of 4-0-42-2 and 4-0-40-0, the pacer's numbers were 4-0-38-3 and 4-0-56-1. Jadeja had a second-best economy rate last season with 6.35.
- Rishabh Pant, in his five matches against CSK, strikes at 165.17, more that his career IPL strike rate of 161. It is here that Ngidi will play a good role given his impressive number against the left-hander - six balls, seven runs and two dismissals.
- Shane Watson did not have good start to his IPL 2020 campaign, and is unlikely to rectify the numbers against Delhi given his poor records against two of Delhi's key bowlers - Axar Patel (38 balls, 42 runs, five dismissals) or Amit Mishra (68 balls, 79 runs, six dismissals).
- Dhoni needs 36 runs to surpass Suresh Raina (607 runs) to become Chennai's leading run-getter against Delhi.
- The CSK skipper also needs two more sixes to become the 20th batsman to score 300 T20 sixes and third Indian after Rohit Sharma (367) and Suresh Raina (311).
- With Dubai offering enough swing for pacers, Deepak Chahar will be the most delighted as he will look to add to his powerplay tally of 25 wickets in the last two seasons. He enjoys a good record against Delhi's openers, dismissing then a combined five times - Prithvi Shaw (29 balls, 27 runs, 4 dismissals) and Shikhar Dhawan (40 balls 31 runs, 1 dismissal).
