Delhi Capitals won the match by 20 runs despite Dhoni’s epic knock of 37 runs in 16 balls. Ruturaj-led Chennai Super Kings and Rishabh-led Delhi Capitals clashed on Delhi’s new home ground Vishakapatnam. Winning the toss Rishabh invited Kings to bowl first.
Chennai Super kings had came up with 2 victories against GT by 63 runs in the first match and RCB by 6 wickets. Delhi capitals had lost both the game, against Punjab by 4 wickets and against Rajasthan by 12 runs.
1st Innings
Prithvi Shaw and David Warner came out to open for Delhi. Deepak Chahar was brought into attack by Ruturaj. Both the openers approached aggressively in the power play. David Warner and Prithvi Shaw take charge of Deepak Chahar and Mustafizur Rahman. Deepak got hit for 34 runs in his 3 overs while Mustafizur got hit for 18 runs in his first over. At the end of Power play DC was 64/0.
Matheesha Pathirana takes a single-handed brilliant catch in the over bowled by Mustafizur Rahman to dismantle the opening partnership between Shaw and Warner. 1st wicket fell in 9. 3over and DC were 93/1. Warner scored a brilliant half-century 52(35) for the Capitals including 5 fours and 3 sixes before departing.
Jadeja dismissed Prithvi Shaw in the next over with MS Dhoni taking catch of Shaw and DC were 2 down at 103/2 after 10.4 over. Shaw departed scoring 43(27) including 4 fours and 2 sixes. Capitals were flying high with Mitchell Marsh and Pant at the crease until the 14th over. Pathirana came to bowl his second over and clean-bowled Mitchell Marsh for just 18(12) and Tristan Stubbs got bowled for a duck and went back to the pavilion adding nothing on the scoreboard and DC was reduced to 134/4.
Axar Patel came out to bat at no 6 for DC to build the inning and set the bar high for the Kings. Rishabh Pant completed his half-century in style in just with 3 back to back boundaries against pacer Pathirana but Pathirana trapped Pant with a slower delivery and got caught by Ruturaj Gaikwad. Pathirana completed a 3-wicket Haul. Pant scored 51 runs in 32 deliveries with 4 fours and 3 sixes.
Abhishek Porel came with the intent to cross the 200-run mark but Mustafizur showcased his brilliance in death-bowling and gave away 12 runs restricting Capitals on 191. Ruturaj and his men would need to make 192 on the board to grab another 2 points in their name.
On the Bowling side, Matheesha Pathirana bagged 3 important wickets for CSK of Mitchell Marsh, Tristan Stubbs, and Rishabh Pant. Jadeja picks 1 wicket and Mustafizur Rahman picks 1 wicket for the side. Tushar Deshpande remains the most economical yet wicketless, giving away just 24 runs in 4 overs.
The Runchase
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra came out to open for Chennai and Khalil Ahmad opened the attack with a new ball. Khalil Ahmad strikes early for Capital dismissing Skipper Gaikwad in the first over. Ajinkya Rahane came out to bat at No 3 for Chennai. Another opening batter Rachin Ravindra got caught while trying to go big and CSK lost 2 quick wickets. CSK was 7/2 after 2.5 overs.
Daryl Mitchell also got out after playing a fine knock that helped CSK to run their scoreboard. Daryl Mitchell Scored 34 runs in 26 deliveries with 1 four and 2 sixes.
Shivam Dubey the danger man walks in at No. 5 for CSK and starts building the partnership with Ajinkya Rahane who was looking good and all set to chase the big score. Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dubey were slowly moving toward the target. Chennai was suffering from the run rate pressure which already had exceeded over 15 in the deathovers. Shivam Dube couldn’t finish on a high note for Chennai as Dube got dismissed by Mukesh Kumar with Tristan Stubbs taking a catch to send Dube back to Pavilion.
Young Rizvi who had started with a bang in the first match against Gujarat Titans Came to bat but got unlucky with the leading edge taken by Khalil Ahmad and got dismissed for a golden duck. The most awaited man MS Dhoni entered the crease for CSK. Dhoni started with a boundary.
Ms Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja couldn’t finish the game on a winning note but Dhoni played a fiery unbeaten knock of 37 runs in just 16 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes with a strike rate of 231.25. Jadeja scored 21 runs in 17 balls with 2 fours. Chennai Super Kings only managed to score 171 on the boards losing 5 wickets and Delhi Capitals finally got off the mark with this 20 runs win over Kings.
On the Bowling side, Khalil Ahmad strikes early for the Capitals picking 2 wickets and dismissing both the opening batters with an economy rate of 5.25. Mukesh Kumar dismissed the powerhouses like Shivam Dube, Rizvi, and Mitchell with an economy of 7.00 bowling just 3 over. Axar Patel also picked 1 wicket All other bowlers Ishant Sharma, Anrich Nortje Mitchell Marsh, and Rasikh Salam remain wicketless.
Khalil Ahmad was the Player of the match for his 2/21 (4) against Chennai Super Kings.
Delhi Capitals will lock horns with Kolkata on 3 April, Wednesday while Chennai Super Kings will be seen clashing with Sunriser Hyderabad on 5 April, Friday.