Chennai: Chennai Super Kings notched their seventh win of the tournament, their second in a row, as they beat Delhi Capitals in Match 55 of TATA IPL 2023 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
A string of cameos from the CSK's middle and lower-middle order batters, led by MS Dhoni's 9-ball 20, helped CSK post a competitive 167/8. A disciplined bowling effort led by the impressive Matheesha Pathirana (3/37) then saw the home team apply the choke and maintain the stranglehold on the DC batters to restrict them to 140/8 and win the match by 27 runs.
Chasing 168, Delhi Capitals were jolted early as David Warner hit one straight to extra cover off the second ball of the first over from Deepak Chahar. Phil Salt though attacked straightaway, thumping a four and a six off Tushar Deshpande in the second over. He then clobbered a massive six off Chahar but the wily pacer gave a perfect reply as he had Salt (17 off 11) caught at mid on off the next ball.
DC's attacking intent didn't go down as Rilee Rossouw hit a six and a four off Chahar and Impact Player Manish Pandey finished the over with a four to make it 15 off the over. Maheesh Theekshana ended the over well, giving away just four singles as DC trudged to 46/3 at the end of the first six overs.
DC introduced Manish Pandey as their Impact Player, replacing Khaleel Ahmed. He didn't have the best of starts as he was involved in a massive confusion over a single which brought about the dismissal of Mitchell Marsh.
CSK kept things disciplined and didn't give away much as DC reached 65/3 at the half-way mark. Manish Pandey then welcomed Matheesha Pathirana into the attack with a cracking whip over deep mid-wicket for a six. But the Sri Lankan pacer hit back hard to dismiss Pandey(27 off 29) LBW via a lethal yorker. Pathirana was in action again, this time on the other side, as he accepted a calm catch to send back Rossouw (35 off 37), off Jadeja as DC were reduced to 89/5 in the 15th over. Axar Patel then got into the act hitting a four off Pathirana and then a massive 86m six over extra cover off Theekshana but the required run rate had climbed to 20 with 60 required off the last three overs.
Pathirana then got the massive wicket of Axar Patel (21 off 12) as he outfoxed him with a slower on and had him caught at long on. It was a decent over in the context of the game as Pathirana gave away 12 runs and picked up the wicket of Axar as the equation came down to 48 needed off 12. It required a miracle but DC could manage just off the last two overs as CSK won comprehensively by 27 runs.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. They made one change to the starting eleven as Ambati Rayudu replaced Matheesha Pathirana. They named Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapatim Shaik Rasheed, Akash Singh and Matheesha Pathirana as their substitutes.
Delhi Capitals made two changes to their starting XI as Ripal Patel and Manish Pandey replaced Manish Pandey and Mukesh Kumar. Manish Pandey, Pravin Dubey, Chetan Sakariya and Abishek Porel made it to their substitutes list.
Chennai Super Kings got off to a streaky start as Ruturaj Gaikwad hit a couple of fours which flew off the edges, off Ishant Sharma. He finally got one off the middle as a crunched it through point to make it three fours in the second over. Khaleel Ahmed bowled with discipline and was unlucky not to have got the wicket of Devon Conway as the batter edged one to the keeper but no one picked it up and after a small consultation Delhi Capitals also decided not to review it. Replays showed Conway had got an outside edge trying to play an expansive drive. Khaleel gave away just 9 runs from his first two overs.
David Warner then brought Axar Patel into the attack early and he weaved his magic straightaway, trapping Conway LBW off the first ball of his spell. He send back the other opener, Gaikwad (24 off 18), caught at long off in his next over. And in between, Rahane started off in an aggressive fashing smashing a couple of fours off Axar in the same over where he got the wicket of Conway.
DC kept applying pressure with accurate bowling as they gave away just 12 runs and picked a wicket from overs 7-9. With frustrations growing, Moeen Ali looked to up the scoring and perished in the process as he mistimed his loft straight to backward point off Kuldeep Yadav as CSK reached 66/3 at the halfway stage. It was their lowest total in the first 10 overs in IPL 2023 and it was also the first time they hadn't hit a six uptill the halfway stage.
Shivam Dube then broke the shackles as he hammered one over wide long on for a powerful maximum. It was CSK's first boundary after 28 balls. Rahane too tried to force things but departed in process courtesy a spectacular caught and bowled by Lalit Yadav. Rahane smacked one straight back and Lalit dived to his right to pouch a brilliant low one-handed catch. Another quiet period followed before Dube and Rayudu hit the fifth gear, smacking three sixes and a four off Lalit Yadav to make it a 23-run over.
Warner then brought on Mitchell Marsh into the attack and he broke the 36-run stand by having the dangerous Dube (25 off 12) caught at deep mid-wicket off a slower one. Two overs later Rayudu (23 off 17) also departed, mistiming his swipe straight to long on, off Khaleel Ahmed.
The DC pacer gave away just four off the 17th over. Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni then provided a late surge as Jadeja smashed a six straight down the ground of Kuldeep and then Dhoni took on Khaleel cracking a couple of sixes and a four to make it 21 off the penultimate over.
Jadeja (21 off 16) started off the final over with a cracking four straight down the ground off Marsh but the DC all-rounder bounced back to have him caught at long on off the next ball and then had Dhoni caught at long on too as he completed a fantastic last over, giving away just 7 runs.
Marsh was the pick of DC bowlers with impressive figures of 3-0-18-3.
CSK brought on Matheesha Pathirana as their Impact Player, replacing Shivam Dube, at the start of their bowling innings. (UNI)
