Super Kings aim to seal top-two spot

Ipltable

Chennai Super Kings entering the playoffs and Delhi Daredevils scraping the bottom of the points table has been pretty much their stories in the IPL. Not much has changed this edition too.

While the battle for the third and fourth spot intensifies between five teams, the match between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Friday has a simple equation.

A win for MS Dhoni’s side will cement their top two spot while a loss might not damage their chances too much.

When the IPL player auction ended, the squad compositions of both Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils painted a contrasting picture. CSK’s side consisted of veterans in Dhoni (36), Shane Watson (36), Dwayne Bravo (34), Ambati Rayudu (32) and Suresh Raina (31). DD, on the other hand, had youngsters in Under-19 World Cup winning captain Prithvi Shaw (19), Shreyas Iyer (23), Rishabh Pant (20) and Abhishek Sharma (17).

However, as the tournament progressed, CSK showed that experience in match situations and the ability to soak pressure is very handy as compared to the fearless yet occasional brilliance shown by the youngsters at DD.

CSK’s top order has been the trump card in the 2018 edition, with the likes of Ambati Rayudu stealing the show. The 32-yearold is the leading run-getter for the team with 535 runs at an average of 48 and a strike rate of 152. Team P W SRH CSK KKR MI RR KXIP

RCB DD 12 9 3 18 0.400 12 8 4 16 0.383 13 7 6 14 -0.096 13 6 7 12 0.384 13 6 7 12 -0.403 13 6 7 12 -0.490 12 5 7 10 0.218 12 3 9 6 -0.478

*after MI v KXIP match Team finishing the group engagements in second spot have entered the final seven times and won the title five times. Royals beat Chennai in the 2008 final L Pts

NEWDELHI: NRR*

Team finishing the group engagements in top spot have entered the final seven times but won the title only twice. In 10 IPL finals, there are seven occasions when a lower ranked team has gone on to beat a higher ranked team in the final.