New Delhi, May 20 (IANS): Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni has won the toss and elected to bat first against Delhi Capitals in match 67 of IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The last time these sides met in the competition, Chennai put up 167/8 on a sluggish surface at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and then restricted Delhi to 140/8 and won by 27 runs. A win for Chennai here will definitely confirm them a spot in the playoffs while a loss will leave them at the mercy of other results going in their favour.

With the majority in the crowd donning yellow jerseys aplenty, a surreal massive roar and applause went up in the stadium as soon as Dhoni won the toss. He said the playing eleven is unchanged from their last match against Kolkata Knight Riders and batting first came due to the sluggish nature of the centre pitch.

"We've been trying to win games right from the first game. It's a balanced eleven and we don't need to make many changes. Day game, the pitch will also slow down as the match progresses, that's the reason we wanted to bat first."

"In a tournament like this, we'll have good and bad games, need to take the learnings from every game and that's what I want the youngsters in the team to learn," he said.

Delhi captain David Warner said off-spin all-rounder Lalit Yadav and left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya come into the playing eleven, with veteran pacer Ishant Sharma going out. "Today, it's all about trying to spoil CSK's party. Match-ups are important for us in this game and we've made changes accordingly."

"It's about consistency, we haven't settled in home conditions, but today is another chance. We will have to start afresh here after that convincing win (over Punjab Kings) in Dharamsala."

Playing XIs

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (captain & wicketkeeper), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande and Maheesh Theekshana

Substitutes: Matheesha Pathirana, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Akash Singh

Delhi Capitals: David Warner (captain), Yash Dhull, Phil Salt (wicketkeeper), Rilee Rossouw, Aman Khan, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Khaleel Ahmed and Anrich Nortje

Substitutes: Mukesh Kumar, Prithvi Shaw, Praveen Dubey, Ripal Patel, Abishek Porel