The Chennai Super Kings are starting to look like the team to beat in IPL 2014, like they so often are in this T20 tournament, and next up for the CSK juggernaut are the struggling Delhi Daredevils.
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The game is scheduled for an 8 pm IST (3.30 pm BST, 10.30 am ET) start with live coverage on Sony Six (English) and Sony Max (Hindi) in India. The game can also be watched via live streaming online HERE or HERE. Viewers around the world can live stream the T20 action HERE or HERE. Watch the game in the US through Willow TV or via the live streaming option HERE, while Canada viewers can watch the games on Sportsnet or HERE.
Viewers in the UK can catch the match on ITV, while Pakistan viewers can do the same on Geo Super, with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh audience able to watch the game on TV on Masaranga TV and Carlton Sports Network respectively. Viewers in the Middle East can watch the action on OSN with the live streaming option HERE, while New Zealand viewers can do the same via Sky NZ or HERE or via the above rest of the world options.
The match at the Feroz Shah Kotla will have one clear favourite, and it will not be the home side, with MS Dhoni's men looking in supreme touch with both the bat and the ball. CSK, after losing a high-scoring encounter to the Kings XI Punjab in their opening game of IPL 7, have not tasted defeat even once after that, going on a five-match winning run, which sees them level on points with KXIP at the top of the table.
"It's been going well so far," Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said. "We have played a good game of cricket but there is still a long way to go. We have been in positions where we realise how quickly things can change.There is a nice mood in the camp, and we are still very determined to keep playing well. We know that we can't relax at any stage. It's not an easy game."
"We have won five out of six, so I would take it any time. Perennially, we have been slow starters. So to get a start like this has been excellent. It has been good. There is a lot of hard work that goes in picking the side and getting the dynamic right. We have been lucky with our selections and have been repaid for our faith already. It has been a good feeling in the camp and also there is a realism around the stop-start nature of form within the IPL.
"For most departments it has been going well -- our fielding has been excellent and the batting has been good. We are always cautious while making statements like that, but at this stage the way things are going in all departments, it is good."
So good that it is difficult at the moment to find a chink in CSK's armour. The only possible way for the Delhi Daredevils to ruffle the powerful batting lineup is by picking up both openers - Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith - early. The two batsmen have been in roaring form in IPL 2014, and if they catch fire again, there really is going to be only one winner.
"They have created a good partnership so far," Fleming added. "I think we all know that form can be a bit fickle in the Twenty20 format, but so far they have been incredibly consistent and that is one of the main reasons we have done so well."
The Daredevils will bank on their overseas players to come to the party against CSK. If Kevin Pietersen strikes form, then the Chennai franchise could be in for a long evening, while the home side will also be hoping for a quickfire start from Quinton De Kock.
The bowling department has been Delhi's problem this season, as there just does not seem to be enough potency to restrict the opponents while defending a smallish total. The onus will be on Mohammed Shami and Wayne Parnell to get the early breakthroughs (read McCullum and Smith); if they can do that, then DD will stand a strong chance of picking up just their third win in seven matches.
The last time the two teams met in IPL 2014, it was a no-contest, and then some, in Abu Dhabi, with CSK romping home by 93 runs, their highest ever victory in the IPL, after bowling DD out for a mere 84.
The Daredevils will not want a repeat of that result on Monday.
