Delhi Capitals vs Chennai Super Kings, 34th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Sam Curran falls in the first ball

Big blow for CSK because he's the tempo setter for them. Sharp short ball from Tushar Deshpande and Sam is hurried into the pull and the top-edge flies to third man where Nortje completes a nice catch.

TOSS: CSK opt to bat; Kedar Jadhav returns in place of Piyush Chawla. Still no Rishabh Pant for DC.

Teams:

DC:Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Tushar Deshpande, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje

CSK:Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma

Prelude - Can DC do the double over CSK?

A cat-and-mouse chase at the top of the points table is afoot. Mumbai Indians - the four-time champions and the current holders - have reached a stage in the season where they look without a flaw across the board, but DC are still hot on their heels. They are in fact behind only by NRR, and a win will take them two points clear at the top - albeit having played an extra game.

While the chasing pack jostle among themselves to make the cut for the playoffs, DC here have the chance to continue putting daylight between themselves and them. That will put them in contention for the top two spots that come with an advantage of a second chance in the knockouts.

CSK meanwhile, will probably have an afterglow from their previous victory - over SRH. Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni have repeatedly spoken about finding their best combinations and plugging a boat full of holes, which they seemingly managed in the last fixture. It was, per Dhoni, as close to perfection as they've managed this season. Their NRR is still a worry (-0.390) but a run of results in the second half of the tournament - when the conditions are expected to get friendlier to their spinners - could easily offset that issue. With so much cogestion in the middle, that 'run' might have to begin right away.

What happened in their last meeting?

DC played it smart in the PP overs, smashed their spinners in the middle and then outmuscled CSK with their match-ups game (Remember, Axar Patel bowling in the PP to get rid of Watson?).

How have they fared in Sharjah?

CSK featured in the first game that was played in Sharjah this season, and were blown away by Sanju Samson's six-hitting skills. He hit 9 eye-pleasing ones in his 32-ball 74 as RR got 216/7. In reply, Murali Vijay struggled and only Faf du Plessis looked to bring intent to the table. But it wasn't enough. It was a strange run-chase, that ended with CSK falling 16 runs short.

DC have two wins in two fixtures at the venue, and will hope to close out with a 100 percent record tonight. They've managed to play two different kinds of games to take all the points on offer - first, against KKR it came via a Shreyas Iyer special - 88 off 38 balls - that took DC to the highest score of the season - 228/4. In their next game, they bowled exceptionally well to not just defend a sub-200 total (184/4) against RR, but did so with so much aplomb that they walked away with a sizeable margin of victory - by 46 runs.