Daijiworld Media Network

Chennai, May 14: Hello and welcome for match 64 between hosts Chennai and Delhi. Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Co. are sitting pretty at second place in the table. Delhi haven't been quite themselves this year. In 2012 at Chennai, Delhi were beaten badly in both the league stages and the 2nd qualifier. Chennai would look to forget their heavy loss at the hands of Rajasthan and pull off win to be safe for a play-off spot.

Chennai have won the toss and elected to bat.

David Warner: 'The boys are full of energy. We are playing for some pride and hopefully we will knock over some top teams over. We were looking to bat first as well. Obviously we have lost the toss now. We will come out with 100% energy and as I said hopefully we will knock them over. We have made three changes. Roelof van der Merwe and Nehra are in'

MS Dhoni: 'It is the last game over here for us. The fans have been really great and we have to win this game for them. The group is fine. Morris needs a bit of rest and we will rest him for Albie. We will bat first. The wicket looks a good one and hopefully we will get a good score on this surface. It is very important we get the small things right and entertain the crowd.'

Teams:

Delhi (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Virender Sehwag, Unmukt Chand, Ben Rohrer, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav(w), Irfan Pathan, Roelof van der Merwe, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav, Ashish Nehra

Chennai (Playing XI): Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Mohit Mahipal Sharma

Match Preview:

Comfortably placed as one of the top teams, Chennai will focus on sealing their playoff berth when they take on a lowly Delhi side in their own den. Chennai, with 10 victories and four losses from 14 matches, will look to add to their wins tally while Delhi, who are placed second-last in the points table with as many as 10 defeats from 13 games, will be playing for pride.

Chennai:

Chennai have had a couple of setbacks recently, losing two of their last three games. While they came back well with a big win against Pune after their thumping loss against Mumbai, Chennai's form took a bit of a tumble again when the Dhoni led side suffered a five-wicket loss against Rajasthan on Sunday night. These defeats will come as a wake-up call for the former champions, who will be looking to bounce back and regain the No. 1 position.

In-form player: Orange Cap holder Michael Hussey has been in exceptional form, having accumulated 614 runs in 13 matches at an average of 95 with five half-centuries against his name. Hussey's retirement from Test cricket has made him focus solely on the Indian T20 League, much to Chennai's delight. The Australian, who has scored 11 runs more than Chris Gayle, will be looking to extend that gap even further. Having already notched up a fifty against Delhi the previous time these two sides met, Hussey will be hoping to do even better this time round.

Hits: Apart from Hussey, Suresh Raina has also done a fine job with the bat in this tournament while Murali Vijay's return to form with a half-century against Rajasthan will be an added boost for the Chennai team. In the bowling department, uncapped seamer Mohit Sharma has been splendid far. Chennai have also been served well by Dwayne Bravo, who currently tops the list of highest-wicket takers in this tournament along with Sunil Narine and Vinay Kumar, with 22 wickets apiece.

Misses: Chris Morris, while being amongst the wickets, has had a few expensive outings which is the same with Bravo too. Both the bowlers have an economy of 8 or more in this tournament so far, which will be a bit of a concern for the Chennai team.

Recent results: Lost to Rajasthan by 5 wickets, Won against Hyderabad by 77 runs, Lost to Mumbai by 60 runs.


Delhi:

Already out of contention for a berth in the play-offs, Delhi have only pride to play when they face the mighty opponents at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Given the current scenario though, they can play without any pressure as there is no burden of expectations on the misfiring batsmen and the out-of-sorts bowlers.

In-form player: While nothing has gone right for for them this season, the form of Ben Rohrer in the recent games has given Delhi something to cheer about. While his scores of 32 against Bangalore and an unbeaten 64 against Rajasthan went in vain, the middle-order batsman from New South Wales has shown a lot of promise and Delhi will be hoping he continues in the same vein.

Hits: David Warner, with four half-centuries and 364 runs from 13 games, has been doing most of the scoring for the Delhi side this season. Unmukt Chand, who had a dismal beginning this season, has started to blossom with a couple of good performances against Bangalore and Kolkata.

Misses: There have been quite a lot of misses for Delhi this season with the batsmen and bowlers failing in unison in quite a few games. Mahela Jayawardene and Virender Sehwag's poor form with the bat has been the foremost cause for Delhi's poor showing. Morne Morkel too has not been in his elements unlike the previous season, which has hurt Delhi's bowling line-up. Umesh Yadav, who went for 65 runs against Bangalore, has gone for quite a few as has Ashish Nehra.

Recent results: Lost to Bangalore by 4 runs, Lost to Rajasthan by 9 wickets, Lost to Hyderabad by 6 wickets.

Quotes:

It has become a bit tight for us. We were trying to win here (in Rajasthan) so that we could distance ourselves from others but now we have a pack of 5-6 teams close on our heels. We have to win the remaining games. We are not certain even for qualifying leave alone the top two spots,: Chennai coach Stephen Fleming