They win one and they  lose one but Deccan have slowly picked themselves  off the bottom and are  beginning to inch up in  the points table. They  were almost a two-man  bowling attack, with only Dale Steyn and Amit  Mishra contributing in  the first half of the  tournament, but  suddenly, from nowhere,  Ishant Sharma  announced himself in  some style in  their last  game .  Admittedly, the  pitch was helpful but  Deccan will hope he will  rouse himself to greater  deeds from here on. As far as their batting is  concerned, Deccan have  depended heavily on  Kumar Sangakkara. Their domestic batsmen have  failed, their big signings  like Cameron White,  Daniel Christian and JP  Duminy haven't quite  managed to live up to  their billing yet. So, it's  no surprise that they  haven't been consistent  so far. Deccan's opponents  Chennai Super Kings  have lost three games  but it took some  exceptional  performances, and iffy  conditions, to beat them. Paul Valthaty dropped  his cloak of anonymity  one day, Harbhajan  Singh picked his  maidenTwenty20  five-for  on another day, and rain played a big part in the  game they lost to Kochi.  They have won all their  home games and won  their first away game in  the  last encounter   against Pune. They  return to Chennai where  their spin-heavy attack  can be expected to test  Deccan's batting. Form guide (most recent first) Deccan : WLWLW (sixth  in points table) Chennai : WWLLW (fifth  in points table) Team talk Will Deccan Chargers opt  for the off-colour  Pragyan Ojha at  Chepauk? Ojha, who was  a star performer in  previous IPL editions, has been looted for runs but  they might be tempted to give him a go on Sunday. Surely, now, JP Duminy,  or even Michael Lumb,  will be given a go in  place of Cameron White? In the spotlight S Badrinath  has been  one of the most  classically pure batsmen  in this IPL. Everything  seems to have fallen in  place for him this IPL  season; he hasn't been  dismissed in his last  three games and has  harvested runs in some  style. Interestingly, he  will face Dale Steyn, the  man who made him look  like a novice in his  last  Test match . The ball cut  in, swung out, reared at  the throat, and  Badrinath struggled; his  critics have used that  failure to fuel their  arguments. Will there be  a mini-redemption for  him on Sunday? India loves their quick  bowlers because there  haven't been many in  their history. And so  when  Ishant Sharma   harassed Ricky Ponting  in a furious spell at  Perth, they thought they had found a new hero.  However, Ishant slowly  lost his mojo and with it  his place in the national  team. He sparkled on a  pitch that had something for the seamers against  Kochi. Will it be the start of his journey back to the highest level or was it  just a one-off? Prime numbers Kumar Sangakkara and Badrinath are the top  scorers for their  respective sides and both  have made 235  runs.  Chennai have two other  batsman who have tallied more than 200  but  Deccan's second highest  run-tally is 144 ( Bharat  Chipli).  Doug Bollinger is the  only bowler from either  of these teams who has  an economy rate of  under 6  an over (5.93) The chatter "Our captain [ Sangakkara] is playing  beautifully at the  moment, Sunny Sohal  has done well, [Bharat]  Chipli has also done  quite well. Mishra's been  outstanding, probably  one of the best bowlers  in the competition.  Everyone's beating  everyone out there. No  one's really slipping away at the top of the table. If  we win tomorrow it will  be our fourth win and  we'll be pretty close to those four top positions.
 
 
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