Comeback man Rishabh Pant hit a long-awaited fifty after David Warner’s well-constructed 52 to set up Delhi Capitals’ convincing 20-run win over Chennai Super Kings, for whom veteran MS Dhoni’s vintage knock was not enough to get over the line to feature in their IPL match in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Faced with a tough target of 192 runs, the Super Kings tried to push it back through Ajinkya Rahane (45), Dhoni (37 not out) and Daryl Mitchell (34), but the Capitals had far too many weapons in front of them on the night himself. CSK finished at 171 for six.
In the first session, Warner and Prithvi Shaw (43) overcame a slow start to share an opening stand of 93 runs before Pant’s 32-ball 51 powered DC to a competitive 191 for 5.
Pant, who entered the tournament after recovering from a life-threatening road accident in December 2022, crossed four boundaries and three maximums for his first fifty in 15 months.
Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (21/2) set the tone for DC’s defense with his double strikes in the Power Play, which was led to flourish by pacer Mukesh Kumar (21/3).
As Ruturaj Gaikwad’s (1) troubles against left-arm closers continued as he was overtaken by an excellent inswinger, a frustrated Rachin Ravindra (2) holed out to Tristan Stubbs after a 12-ball stay as CSK slumped to 32 for 2 in six. about.
Rahane and Mitchell provided some stability with a 68-run stand, including a 17-run over from DC’s impact sub Rasikh Salam’s second over, but left-arm spinner Axar Patel dismissed the New Zealander to break the alliance.
It was a Mukesh show after that when he came to bowl after the 13th over. He struck twice in two balls to remove Rahane and Sameer Rizvi (0), leaving CSK at 102 for 5 in the 14th over.
Shivam Dube (18) was next to go as Mukesh continued to bowl wide outside off and varied the pace as the batsman eventually sent one straight to long-on.
With CSK needing 58 off 18 balls, Dhoni came into bat for the first time this season to the chant of “Dhoni Dhoni” and treated his fans to some delicious shots.
The former CSK skipper hit two fours in the first three balls while Ahmed dropped a sitter in the second ball.
Dhoni then hit a six over extra cover off Ahmed, who finished with three walks and conceded 12 runs. But Mukesh conceded just 5 runs in the 19th over to crush CSK’s dream, forcing them to make an impossible 41 in the last over.
However, Dhoni, turning back the clock, gave his fans plenty to cheer with a four and a one-handed six on the first two balls, before producing another four and a six in the final ball as CSK scored 20 runs.
But Hurricane Dhoni came a little late.
Earlier, the in-form Warner hit five boundaries and three maximums during his 35-ball 52, while Shaw, playing his first match this season, smashed two sixes and four boundaries in his 27-ball 43.
However, Pathirana produced a sensational catch to dismiss Warner and then returned to strike twice in three balls to bring CSK back into the match.
But Pant, who had looked good in his two previous innings, took time to settle down and then exploded in the end overs to almost take them to a total of 200.
DC got off to a cautious start as they went at a run-a-ball pace for the first four overs.
Warner then singled out Deepak Chahar for the special treatment, placing him in the leg-side stands twice. He also hit two fours on the off side to make 18 off the fifth over.
Mustafizur Rahman was then taken to the cleaners, with Shaw hitting three consecutive fours as DC recorded their highest powerplay score of 62/0 of this IPL.
It took Pathirana’s brilliance to send Warner back as the Sri Lankan dived to his right and plucked the ball out of nowhere, leaving the Australian stunned as Mustafizur drew first blood.
Shaw hit another six to take DC past the 100-run mark but Jadeja dismissed him the next ball, giving him a lead while Dhoni did the rest for his 300th dismissal – the most by a keeper in T20s.
With the two openers over, the scoring rate dropped as skipper Pant struggled for early momentum.
Pathirana then unleashed a 90mph thunderbolt to uproot Mitchell Marsh’s middle stump and then rammed Stubbs’ wood with an in-swinging yorker to leave DC at 134 for 4 in 15 overs.
Pant then stepped up, plundered a four and a six off Mustafizur and then launched Pathirana, hitting him for a six and two fours in the 19th over, as 43 runs came from the last three overs.
(This story has not been edited by WhatsNew2Day staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article