Dubai: Delhi Capitals made their statements clear as a clinical performance ensured they beat Chennai Super Kings by 44 runs in an Indian Premier league (IPL) on here Friday.
Delhi’s bowling kept it tight from start to finish with starman Kagiso Rabada and his fellow Proteas teammate Anrich Nortje showing great composure throughout the innings sharing 5 wickets between them. Rabada being the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets of which one was of Chennai star batsman Faf Du Plessis.
Chasing 176 runs target Chennai kept crumbling as both the openers Shane Watson and Murali Vijay din’t make it past the powerplay overs. It all came down to Du Plessis as he looked to repeat his last match feat. He was playing well on 43 when he lashed on a delivery of Rabada outside the off stump only to edge it to the safe hands of Rishabh Pant behind the stumps.
With the asking rate going up, the batting line up barely put up a fight as Delhi’s bowlers put up a rigid bowling performance constantly building the pressure from the beginning which ended in a win for their side. Nortje looked to be great buy from the auction for Delhi as he chipped in with 2 wickets while giving just 21 runs in his full quota while Axar Patel and Amit Mishra proved to be economical specially in those middle overs.
Earlier in the match the Super Kings won the toss and choose to bowl. Prithvi Shaw showed intent from the word go as he pounced on Deepak Chahar and Piyush Chawla from the very first over with Shikhar Dhawan giving him good support adding 94 runs for the opening wicket. Dhawan then went for a switch hit of Piyush Chawla’s delivery only to be given out plumb LBW.
Prithvi went shortly after that as stepped down the track misjudging the length of the ball and Dhoni made no mistake with uprooting the bails and sending him back for a well made 64. However, skipper Sreyas Iyer & Rishav Pant made sure they get to a respectable total with Pant contributing with 35 runs of 27 balls .
This win ensured Delhi went top of the tree with 4 points from 2 games.
Brief Scores
Delhi Capitals 175/3
Prithvi Shaw 64(43), Rishav Pant 35(27)
Chennai Super Kings 131/7
Faf Du Plessis 43(35), Kedar Jhadav 26(21)
