Delhi Capitals earlier ditched their opening stand of Mitchell Marsh and David Warner by demoting the former and bringing in Prithvi Shaw in his place. While they got off to a sluggish start, both Prithvi Shaw and David Warner took off dramatically towards the end of the powerplay. The pair ensured that DC scored 62 runs for the loss of no wickets in the powerplay. Warner went past fifty but the stand ended soon thereafter with the Australian falling to a screamer of a catch from Matheesha Pathirana. His innings ended on 52 off 35 after which Shaw was dismissed for 43 off 27.
Pathirana then turned it on with the ball, dismissing Mitchell Marsh and Tristan Stubbs in the same over with two searing yorkers. Pant then let lose and scored his first half-century of the season. He was dismissed by Pathirana on 51 off 32 balls and DC eventually ended their 20 overs with a score of 191/5.
Delhi Capitals’ pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma put an almighty stranglehold on Chennai Super Kings after they batted first and scored 191/5 in 20 overs. Openers Rurutaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra fell to Khaleel and CSK were tottering at 7/2 at the start of the third over. Ajinkya Rahane then gave them some impetus towards the end of the powerplay but CSK could never quite get going in their chase in the middle overs. Rahane eventually fell for 45 off 30, leaving Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube chasing a steepling required run rate in the death overs. Dube eventually fell to Mukesh, his third wicket, which meant that MS Dhoni walked in to bat for the first time this season. M.S Dhoni’s entry to bat was all that the entire nation wanted to watch. The crowd went bonkers as Thala (MSD) went on launching massive sixes over the fence and treated the crowd with those massive hits. The decibels hit 130 knots, which recorded the loudest cheer at the tournament. CSK eventually went on losing the game as yet another home team, Delhi Capitals won by 20 runs.
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye.
