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Sussex closed in on their third Championship in five years after enforcing the follow on against Worcestershire at Hove and reducing the visitors to 190 for 5 at close, still 129 runs short of making Sussex bat again. It had appeared that the match would be done and dusted inside three days when Mushtaq Ahmed grabbed three wickets in as many overs to reduce Worcestershire to 117 for 5, but Moeen Ali (72*) and Gareth Batty (32*) put on an unbeaten 73 for the sixth wicket to take the game into a fourth day. Earlier, Mushtaq took 6 for 93 and Jason Lewry 3 for 44 as Worcestershire lost their last seven first-innings wickets for 61. With the weather forecast good for tomorrow, Sussex will fancy polishing off proceedings in the morning.Durham put themselves top of the Championship – if only for a day – with an eight-wicket win over Kent at Canterbury. Kent, who resumed on 99 for 3, offered little resistance, losing their last seven wickets in the morning session. Paul Wiseman, who finished with 4 for 45, and Ottis Gibson, who took his season tally to 80 wickets, polished off the tail. Durham took 10.1 overs to knock off the 52 runs they needed, although Kent, who bowled Robert Key and Geraint Jones – Martin Saggers kept wicket – hardly pressed them.

Lancashire entered this match with hopes of their first outright Championship victory since 1934, but to achieve that they will first need to complete the highest run-chase in their 150-year history, after Mark Ramprakash batted them to a virtual stand-still with his second century of the match at The Oval.Ramprakash, who had put the skids under Lancashire’s title challenge with his first-innings 196, was once again unstoppable as Surrey appointed themselves king-makers at the end of an unproductive season. After bowling Lancashire out for 234, a deficit of 193, Mark Butcher opted not to enforce the follow-on, and Ramprakash capitalised on a demoralised attack with 130 not out, his second century of the match, his tenth of the summer, and his 97th in first-class matches.It was the sixth occasion in his 401-match career that Ramprakash had made two centuries in the same game, and with his 104th run he reached 2000 runs for the second season in a row. By the time Butcher had declared with a massive lead of 488, Ramprakash’s average for the summer was sitting pretty on 101.30 from 25 innings. In reply, Paul Horton and Mark Chilton reached the close untroubled on 27 for 0, but with Durham already home and dry against Kent, and Sussex well placed in their home match against Worcestershire, Lancashire have no option but to go for glory and take on the 462 runs still required.Ramprakash did not have to wait long to get back into the action, as Scott Newman fell to Dominic Cork with just two runs added to Surrey’s overnight score. Thereafter he and Jonathan Batty rumbled towards an indomitable position, and Batty had designs on his own landmark of 1000 runs in the season before he mistimed a pull to midwicket off Oliver Newby for 45. Butcher and Ramprakash then added 77 in even time for the third wicket to push the lead up past 350.Butcher was caught behind for 47 off Glen Chapple, who also induced a miscued pull when Ramprakash was on 79. It was the closest he came to being dismissed all innings. He went to tea unbeaten on 99, and reached his hundred soon afterwards with a tucked single through midwicket. James Benning got off the mark with a six over long-on as Surrey pressed towards a declaration total, leaving Lancashire with ten overs to negotiate before the close.There was no play between Hampshire and Yorkshire at Headingley.

Includes all points up to the close of play

Ricky Ponting says that Australia have addressed the problems that led to their Ashes loss last summer and are now headed in the right direction towards reclaiming the urn.Speaking to the , Ponting said that he would prepare for this winter’s series against England knowing that he had a settled unit. “Our Test cricket can’t be faulted, really, since the last Ashes Test match. Everything we have done has been very, very good quality,” he said. ” The areas that we needed to address, I think … after England we have addressed. We have certainly turned a number of things around and we are heading in the right direction.”Australia have fielded 21 players since the final Ashes Test last September, including five debutants, but Ponting remained confident of his side’s abilities. “Matty Hayden is in as good a form as he has ever been. I feel like my game is going really well at the moment, Michael Hussey has barely put a foot wrong, so there are lots of great signs for us come Ashes time,” he said. “It is great to see Jason [Gillespie] back and bowling well and it is great to see Michael Kasprowicz back and bowling well and Brett [Lee] in career-best form. I will be very confident going in knowing we have a very good settled line-up and a bunch of guys who are going to do everything they can to try to win the Ashes back.”Compared to a struggling England, who lost in Pakistan and drew in India and have had their share of injury woes, Australia have not lost a Test since the Ashes. “We know England probably haven’t got everything in order right at the moment,” Ponting said. “They have had lots of injuries and they have a really tough program heading into the Ashes series as well. So it is the one thing we are all really looking forward to now.”While confident that the apparent instability in a bowling attack missing Glenn McGrath had been sorted out, Ponting was hopeful that his champion bowler, missing because of family reasons, would be back soon. “We have to see where Glenn is at, hopefully he is going to be available for the Ashes, which would be good for us if he is because over the past 12-18 months he has been really good for us,” Ponting said. “[Shane Warne] has bowled particularly well, Stuey MacGill bowled very well out here, so things are heading in the right direction.”Now the guys have the chance to freshen up and get really fit for what is a really big six or seven months of international cricket for us with the Champions Trophy, the Ashes and the World Cup,” he added. “So the opportunity is in our hands now for us to go away and work really hard and to make sure we are up to whatever confronts us. Come the first Test there should be no excuses for us; we should be primed and ready to go.”Ponting said that he would urge his team-mates to have as much time off as possible before they begin their summer preparations with a fitness test on June 19. The Australians will have two Pura Cup matches before the start of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane on November 23.

Scorecard

Haidee Tiffen was responsible for guiding New Zealand to a relatively comfortable consolation win to end the Rose Bowl Series in Darwin. After handing over the trophy to Australia on Saturday, the captain Tiffen made sure of a 3-2 final result with an unbeaten 66 that pushed her side past the hosts’ 9 for 180.Karen Rolton won the toss and Australia started strongly, but once the openers Shelley Nitschke and Melissa Bulow were dismissed the innings fell away. Nitschke was stumped off Sarah Tsukigawa for 47 and Bulow departed with 51 when the team was in good health at 2 for 115.However, New Zealand struck regularly over the final 20 overs to restrict their opponents to a total they reached with 5.1 overs to spare. Australia had a chance when the visitors were 4 for 75 after Sara McGlashan had retired hurt with an injured knee, but Tiffen received valuable assistance from Nicola Browne, the Player of the Series, and Rachel Priest (39) on the way to a four-wicket win.Rolton was delighted with Australia’s showing throughout the series. “I think all the games were tough and well-contested but I guess our good record against New Zealand helped us come through in close finishes. I think New Zealand played good cricket and it has some exciting young players who should make their names in years to come.”Tiffen, meanwhile, called for more consistency from her team. “It was disappointing to lose the series. We need to be more consistent in all facets of the game. We have come out of our winter and both the Rose Bowl and the England tour will provide us with an opportunity to expose players to international cricket before the World Cup.”

Day 2
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

An outstanding spell of new-ball bowling and a resolute opening partnership changed the complexion of the Multan Test, putting West Indies in a comfortable position at the end of the second day. Jerome Taylor’s fiery five-for – his second in Tests – loosened Pakistan’s grip on the game before Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga, with a methodical 151-run partnership, consolidated the advantage.Pakistan didn’t look like the side that dominated the proceedings yesterday. A combination of Taylor’s fizz and Corey Collymore’s metronomic accuracy felled them from a commanding 263 for 4 to 357 all out. They didn’t have much joy on the field either with Gayle and Ganga blunting the new-ball pairing before frustrating the rest. Combining for their fifth century partnership, they cashed in on a belter of a pitch to become the first pair of West Indies openers to go past hundred in Pakistan.Both began uncertainly – three of Gayle’s four fours flew off the edge – but settled upon a sturdy foundation once they saw off the new ball. Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir, the matchwinners in the first Test at Lahore, had their moments but with the pitch easing out and both batsmen resolutely biding time, West Indies were in control.Danish Kaneria gained appreciable spin, nearly bowling Ganga behind the legs on one occasion, but the slow nature of the turn allowed the batsmen enough time to adjust their strokes. The faster men lost their bite once the ball got older and the introduction of Mohammad Hafeez, bowling his generous long-hops, didn’t help matters. Having plodded to his half-century in 101 deliveries, Gayle opened out emphatically towards the end of the day. Ganga maintained a steady rate but his ability to put away the loose balls allowed him to tick along just fine.It was a partnership in keeping with the methodical theme of the day after the bowlers had executed their plans splendidly this morning. Brimming with energy, Taylor exploited the life on the pitch. He ensured the line was outside, and sometimes wide, of off stump; he varied his length sensibly; and, most importantly, steamed in hard and hit the deck regularly.At the other end was the untiring Collymore, pounding in 15 overs on the trot, and finally, after what seemed an age, being rewarded for his efforts. He found the nick several times and endured a couple of grassed chances – by Runako Morton at gully and Dwayne Bravo at third slip – but hardly wavered in accuracy.Both bowlers realised that Pakistan would try and attack – which any team would’ve done when perched so comfortably – and used the conditions to their advantage. The tenth ball of the day, when Shoaib Malik edged a legcutter from Collymore, should have produced a wicket but Morton put down a sharp low catch. It didn’t take too long for the breakthrough to arrive: Taylor struck in the next over, squaring up Inzamam-ul-Haq with a good-length delivery outside off and inducing a healthy edge to the wicketkeeper.Having received the reprieve on 20, Malik decided to make the most of his luck and smashed four more fours. His luck finally ran out on 42 when Bravo, at third slip, dived right in front of Brian Lara at second and pulled off a sensational one-handed catch. Kamran Akmal chose the breezy route, falling after a 12-ball 17, but Abdul Razzaq chose to stagnate. His adhesive methods yielded just 16 in 89 balls and he didn’t show any intent to step up the rate, even when he was partnered by tailenders. He made no attempt to farm the strike and preferred to stonewall rather than shift gear. That he scored two fours at a time when Pakistan would have given anything to accelerate didn’t help matters.

New Zealand will be without Shane Bond – easily their best bowler – for their first match of the Champions Trophy, against South Africa. And so the sorry tale of the Champions Trophy rolls on. One sided games have dominated the early stages, and there seems to be a moratorium on tall scores. After West Indies’ collapse against Sri Lanka, it was England’s turn, folding for only 125 against India on a pitch with uneven bounce at Jaipur. We’re still waiting for a big game, and hopefully South Africa and New Zealand – perhaps the two teams without a genuinely big star of the stature of a Sachin Tendulkar or an Andrew Flintoff – can provide that.The interesting thing is that even though Bond has been such a stellar performer for New Zealand – 87 wickets from 45 matches at 18.63 with four or more in a game four times – they still have the bowlers who can do the job in the conditions that have been served up in the Champions Trophy so far. The pitches have been slow and low, and with the ball not coming onto the bat, bowlers who can vary their pace, roll the fingers on the ball and send down cutters, are proving increasingly hard to get away from. The likes of Scott Styris, Jacob Oram and Nathan Astle, if they put the ball in the right areas, could be a handful.With the ball not coming onto the bat as nicely as some batsmen would like, it’s not been easy to drive on the up and find the boundaries. This has meant that batsmen have been forced to graft – although some have barely been in long enough to be successful – and run hard between the wickets. The rising temperatures of the second summer, the month of October, have not made this task any easier.What could work in New Zealand’s favour is the fact that their squad has not played international cricket it in seven months. It was in March that they last played – against West Indies at home – and a lay-off of this kind is fast becoming a rarity in international cricket. “We’re fresh,” said Stephen Fleming, the captain, discussing the seven-month break from international cricket. “Apart from Shane Bond, which is obviously disappointing news, the other players are extremely fresh and ready to go and that gives you an enthusiasm and eagerness which can often wane when you’ve played a long season.”Fleming also took the opportunity to send a rather sharp barb at certain cricket boards – and it doesn’t take much guessing who he’s talking about – as he said, “We’re in a lucky position where our Board considers breaks to be very important. Other Board look at breaks as an opportunity to make money. Our breaks are well measured and well calculated. We only have two Tests and potentially 19 one-dayers, with a view to the World Cup being the most important tournament.”But there is a downside to long breaks, and that is that players can be rusty when they get back to top-flight cricket, and it could take a while for them to hit their straps. “You miss the edge of international competition,” said Fleming. “It certainly is an edge that develops when you’re playing regularly and we need to pick that up as soon as we can. You can’t replicate that in warm-up matches so we know that starting well against South Africa is important.”South Africa, meanwhile, have been in Mumbai long already, and with more than one practice match under the belt, should be quite acclimatised to the conditions. Graeme Smith, the captain spoke of how his team prided themselves in their fitness, and did not put an undue premium on either the heat being a bother or the slow nature of pitches being a problem. Instead, he spoke of how this team were a tight unit, and how this was one of South Africa’s big strengths. “We’re a well drilled team. There’s a good team environment and we get on well,” said Smith. “Our success has been that players have contributed throughout the eleven. We haven’t just relied on one player to dominate a game for us. It’s an advantage that we have had players who have won games from all different situations.”In the lead-up to the tournament you would not have picked South Africa v New Zealand as a marquee clash. But with matches unfolding as they have, some gritty, dour cricket might just bring about the best contest. And these two teams are certainly known for just those attributes.

In the latest move to gain psychological points ahead of the most-hyped Ashes series in recent memory, John Buchanan, the Australian coach, has come out with a detailed list of England’s weaknesses, which he feels Australia are yet to “really expose” on this tour.Buchanan’s comments came in the wake of similar salvos from his English counterpart, Duncan Fletcher, who pointed to new signs of uncertainty in Australia’s game and Ricky Ponting’s captaincy. Buchanan said England’s one-day team contained only three world-class fielders, none of whom are yet in the Test side; advised Fletcher to take a good look at the technical deficiencies of the top order, who have struggled against Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee; and said Andrew Flintoff posed more of a threat to the Australian batsmen than Steve Harmison, England’s leading fast bowler.”What I saw yesterday was very, very encouraging from our point of view in terms of the way a lot of English players were dismissed, their top order,” Buchanan was quotes as saying in . “It would be interesting for him [Fletcher] to reflect on how [Marcus] Trescothick has got out, how [Andrew] Strauss has got out, how [Michael] Vaughan has got out through the course of the series so far with the Test matches in mind.”I just don’t think we’ve really exposed the weaknesses of the English team at the moment as well as we should have done,” he continued. “That’s partly a credit to England – Flintoff’s bowled well, Harmison’s bowled some good balls and they’ve had some support at times … But I think they’ve got three fieldsman only. [Paul] Collingwood is obviously a very good fieldsman, [Vikram] Solanki, who they bring on, [Kevin] Pietersen is quick to the ball … but other than that I think they are quite lumbering in the field.”With three more one-day games to go before the start of the Ashes, both sides will aim to carry on this psychological battle in the NatWest Challenge, starting on Thursday. It will also be the first time that one-day cricket’s new innovations will be tested and will give a glimpse of the challenges captains and teams will face in ODIs in the next few years.

Merv Hughes, the former Australian fast bowler and current national selector, has clarified his stance on the attitude of the Australian players during last year’s Ashes series. Hughes had earlier attributed the players’ friendliness towards their English counterparts as one of the reasons for Australia’s loss.”Get this straight, I haven’t got a problem with the way the Australian team plays its cricket,” Hughes told website. Hughes had previously said the attitude introduced into the Australian team by Allan Border in the late 1980s and early 1990s had been lost and he felt Shane Warne’s friendship with Kevin Pietersen had played a part in Australia’s defeat.”Warney [Shane Warne] likes to get into a bloke’s brain and toy with them, and I just don’t think he could do that with Pietersen,” Hughes said. “It would have been interesting to see their head-to-head battle had they not played at Hampshire together. Warney’s attitude towards Pietersen was pretty good, but Pietersen feels comfortable against Warney because he knows him so well. He didn’t feel threatened. But I’ve got no problems with the players being matey off the ground.”Brett Lee and Andrew Flintoff created the image of the series when Flintoff walked up to Lee to console him after Australia lost the second Test by two runs. “Brett is there to intimidate the opposition,” Hughes said. “I think that he does that … For him to give a smile, it doesn’t mean he’s being friendly. He’s thinking, ‘I’d hate to be in your shoes’, and the batsman knows it. Brett Lee and Flintoff – You know when they get on the ground, they’re both going to be as tough as nails.”Lee defended his attitude by saying it was how he played. He said he should not have to match his menacing bowling with a frightening on-field persona. “It’s not life and death,” he said. “We’re going to play hard, but I’m not going to stop having a beer with someone at the end of a day or having a chat to them on the field if I feel like it.”Lee and his team-mates have a busy schedule laid out for the next few months. Australia start a tri-series against India and West Indies on Tuesday before the Champions Trophy in India in October and the Ashes.

Andrew Symonds, the Queensland allrounder, has been included in the Australian squad for the second Test against West Indies, while Simon Katich has been omitted. The only other change in the 12-man line-up is the inclusion of Brad Hodge, the middle-order batsman from Victoria.Symonds made his Test debut in March last year against Sri Lanka, but didn’t enjoy much success in the two matches he played, scoring just 53 runs in four innings and taking a solitary wicket. But his inclusion in the squad was necessitated by the shoulder injury to Shane Watson in the first Test at Brisbane. Watson had been marked out as the one to fill the allrounder’s slot, but his injury – which will keep him out for at least two months – offers an opportunity to Symonds, who has an excellent one-day record but has never got an extended run at the Test level. Symonds has also been in superb form this season, scoring 163 off 183 balls in Queensland’s Pura Cup match against South Australia last week.Commenting on his selection, Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, said: “Symonds has been in red-hot form with the bat, and his medium pace and offspin adds a lot of options to the bowling attack. He thoroughly deserves his opportunity at Test level again.”Katich missed the cut after scoring two runs in his last three innings and Hohns indicated that a return to first-class cricket would be the best way for him to regain touch. “Simon’s form has not been what he expects of himself and we felt it was time to give someone else an opportunity,” he said. “Brad Hodge has been a very high-scoring player for Victoria for many years and we believe he can do that at Test level. We hope Simon scores plenty of runs at domestic level to give himself every opportunity to get back into the team.”Hodge gets his reward for his consistent performances at the first-class level for Victoria – in 166 matches, he averages 46 with 37 centuries. He has toured India, New Zealand and England but has not played a Test or ODI. The second Tests starts at Hobart on November 17.Australian squad
Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Brad Hodge, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Nathan Bracken, Glenn McGrath, Stuart MacGill.

Harry Brook has pledged to temper his approach against Australia after a frantic start to the Ashes, after Joe Root warned Australia that Brook is a “generational player” who “is going to deliver at some point” in the series.Brook, who is on his first Ashes tour, made 52, 0, 31 and 15 in the first two Tests of the series and acknowledged that two of his dismissals – caught behind driving at a back-of-a-length ball in the second innings in Perth, and edging a booming drive to second slip off Mitchell Starc in the first innings in Brisbane – have been the result of “shocking shots”.Related

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Thirty-two Tests into his England career, Brook averages 55.05 with a rollicking strike rate of 87.36 and has thrived when counter-attacking from No. 5. But his approach has bordered on recklessness in this series, not least when facing Starc in the twilight at the Gabba, and he recognised that he might have to “rein it in a little bit” against Australia’s “highly-skilled” attack.”It hasn’t been an ideal series,” Brook said on Monday, after England trained at Adelaide Oval. “Sometimes, I’ve got to rein it in a little bit: learn when to absorb the pressure a little bit more, and realise when the opportunity arises to put the pressure back on them. I feel like I haven’t done that as well as I usually do. I just haven’t identified those situations well enough.”Most of the time when I’ve been overly aggressive is when we’ve lost early wickets and I’ve tried to counter-punch and put them back under pressure. I tried to do that in Perth in the first innings: I played quite nicely and gloved down the leg side.”I try to read situations as well as possible, and then it all depends on my execution. And so far [in this series], my execution hasn’t been as good as it has been at the start of my career.”Brook is inactive on social media and said that he has not seen or read any of the criticism that he has received during this series, which has largely focused on those two dismissals. But he has reflected on both shots and acknowledged that he would have been better served by playing differently.Guess Joe Root isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but he has been England’s top-scorer this Ashes•Getty Images

“They were shocking shots,” Brook said. “I’ll admit that every day of the week, especially that one in Perth: it was nearly a bouncer and I tried to drive it. It was just bad batting. The one in Brisbane, I’ve tried to hit for six.”That’s what I mean when I try to say that I need to rein it in a little bit. I can almost just take that and hit it for one and get down the other end. Whoever else is in with me at the other end can just get on strike and just keep trying to rotate.”But I’ll be the first person to stand up and say that they were bad shots. I don’t regret them, but if I was there again, I would try and play it slightly differently.”Much of Brook’s success in his first innings of the series came when using his feet to charge Australia’s fast bowlers, a gameplan which was neutralised by Alex Carey standing up to the stumps in Brisbane. But he hinted that he would again look to disrupt Australia’s “highly-skilled” attack in Adelaide this week.”You can’t take this bowling attack lightly: they very rarely miss,” Brook said. “You’ve got to try and create your own bad balls. Doing that might be me running down; it might be me changing my guard or whatever. Look, they don’t miss often and you’ve got to tip your hat to them sometimes. They’ve bowled really well in this series.”Root, meanwhile, gave a strong endorsement of his Yorkshire and England team-mate, comparing him to Kevin Pietersen and backing him to achieve “something very special” in the final three Tests of the series.”He can kill teams with a whisper,” Root told the podcast. “Harry Brook is a generational player, and he is going to deliver at some point in this series. You watch out. He is a match-winner. If he gets himself in and set at some point in this series, he’s going to go and do something very special for us.”It’s a bit like Pietersen. He does things that other players can’t do. That’s the reason why he averages 55, and why he’s done so many special things in his short career until now: because of his mind, and the way that he reads the game.”Brook, England’s vice-captain, also said that the team’s mid-series break in Noosa had allowed them to “refresh” ahead of the third Test and escape the pressure of an Ashes tour. “We tried to stay away from cricket as much as possible. We just wanted to go there and have a good time,” he said.”We had a belting time, and it probably came at the right time when we’re two-nil down. I know most people won’t think that, but to get away from the game and try to refresh as much as possible after a tough start to the series, hopefully that can help us leading into this game.”

Match facts

Friday, May 2, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The Chennai Super Kings are the only unbeaten team in the Indian Premier League but, with the departure of Mathew Hayden, Michael Hussey – their top two runscorers – and Jacob Oram, the real work has just begun if they are to stay at the top. Their first match after the exodus is against third-placed Delhi Daredevils, who haven’t been hit as hard: they’ve lost only Daniel Vettori, who played two of the four matches. Chennai now have a huge hole in their top-order and they will be tested by the IPL’s best new-ball attack – Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif. A win at home against a strong opponent could provide Chennai with the confidence needed to maintain a strong campaign throughout the tournament. Delhi, whose batting has been almost as smooth as their bowling, will have other plans, though, and the fight for the semi-final spots could become more open than it currently is.

Watch out for …

… Stephen Fleming, who is almost certain to make his IPL debut following the departure of Hayden and Hussey. He’s played 36 Twenty20 matches and will need to use all his experience to counter Delhi’s attack. The battle between Muttiah Muralitharan and Delhi’s openers, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, could prove crucial if they get going against Chennai’s new-ball attack. Sehwag hasn’t had much success against Murali, falling to him four times in 38 balls since 2002 but Gambhir, on the other hand, has played Murali effectively, scoring 42 runs off 39 balls against him during the recent CB Series in Australia. Watch out too, for AB de Villiers, who may finally get a game: Dinesh Karthik has scored only 26 in two innings and de Villiers could slot in as a wicketkeeper-batsman.

Team news

Most teams in the competition have a problem of plenty when choosing their overseas stars for the playing XI. Chennai have no such problems because they are left with only four foreign players: Murali, Albie Morkel, Fleming and Makhaya Ntini, the latter two yet to play in the competition. There is also a doubt over their leading fast bowler Manpreet Gony, who has a fever.Chennai: 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Stephen Fleming, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 5 S Badrinath, 6 Albie Morkel, 7, S Vidyut, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Manpreet Gony, 11 Makhaya Ntini.Delhi are unlikely to make too many changes, though Vettori’s absence makes Maharoof a strong contender for a comeback, having taken four wickets in three games with an economy of seven an over. However, Delhi have been relying on their top order to do most of the scoring so the inclusion of de Villiers could strengthen the middle.Delhi: 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Farveez Maharoof, 9 Mohammad Asif, 10 Yo Mahesh, 11 Glenn McGrath.

Chennai Super Kings: WWWW
Delhi Daredevils: WWLW