New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings cruised into the Play-offs as they beat Delhi Capitals in IPL match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Saturday.
The CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (79 off 50) and Devon Conway (87 off 52) set the stage on fire to lay the platform with a 141-run stand. Shivam Dube(22 off 9) and Ravindra Jadeja(20* off 7) then provided the final acceleration with impactful cameos as CSK posted a mammoth 223/3.
Deepak Chahar then shone with a ball with an excellent spell of 3/22 as a combined bowling effort saw CSK restrict DC to 146/9 despite a brave effort from David Warner who fought the lone battle with a brilliant knock of 86(58).
Chasing 224, Delhi Capitals again lost a wicket early as Prithvi Shaw departed in the second over, courtesy a brilliant diving catch at mid off from Rayudu, off Tushar Deshpande.
CSK built pressure from the start with accurate and disciplined bowling and gave away just two fours in the first four overs. Warner then broke the shackles, hammering a six and a four over long on off Deepak Chahar in the fifth over but the CSK pacer hit back hard as he send back Phil Salt, caught at extra cover and then made Rilee Rossouw drag one onto his stumps off the next ball to script a splendid comeback. Warner ended the Powerplay with a six as DC trudged to 34/3.
CSK kept things tight but then Warner upped the ante with a six and a four off Jadeja. He hit a four off Theekshana in the next over and then brought up his fifty off 32 balls.
The captain was single-handedly keeping the momentum going as wickets fell at the other end. He saw Yash Dhull depart from the other end but he kept going strong smashing three sixes and a four off Jadeja to take 23 runs off the over. He then saw Axar Patel depart in the next over as Chahar came back to dismiss the DC all-rounder as DC were reduced to 109/5 in the 14th over. Chahar finished with an impressive spell of 4-0-22-3.
While Warner kept fighting, the run rate crept over 21 with five overs remaining. Aman Khan broke the deadlock with the first boundary in 15 balls as he whipped one wide of short fine leg for a four off Tushar Deshpande.
Warner ended the over by thumping one over extra cover and chopping one to third man for another four as DC accumulated 15 runs off the 16th over. Pathirana then jolted DC further as he had Aman Khan caught at extra cover off the slower ball.
CSK's Impact Player bowled a fantastic over and gave away just six in the over. With required run rate creeping to 29 per over, it was always going to be a bridge too far for DC as Warner finally departed in the 19th over, caught at long on off Pathirana for 86(58) and Theekshana sent back
Lalit Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav off consecutive balls in the final over as DC fell well short by 77 runs.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. The away side went with an unchanged starting XI. They named Matheesha Pathirana, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed and Akash Singh as their substitutes.
Delhi Capitals made two changes to the starting eleven as Lalit Yadav and Chetan Sakariya replaced Prithvi Shaw and Ishant Sharma. Mukesh Kumar, Prihvi Shaw, Pravin Dubey, Ripal Patel and Abishek Porel made it to the home side's substitutes list.
CSK got off to a brisk start courtesy some beautiful shots from Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway. Gaikwad opened his boundary account in the first over with a silken flick off Khaleel Ahmed. He then smacked one over deep mid-wicket off Lalit Yadav in the next over for another four.
Devon Conway then brought up the 1000th six of IPL 2023 as he cracked one straight down the ground for a six in the same over to make it 13 off it. Conway then hit a couple of well-placed fours over mid-wicket and backward point off Khaleel. Gaikwad took on Axar and hit a lovely lofted six over extra cover. Conway then brought up the 50-run stand with back to back fours off Anrich Nortje in the 5th over.
Chetan Sakariya then came into the attack and bowled a frugal over, the first one without a boundary, giving away just two singles as CSL reached 52/0 at the end of the Powerplay.
The pair mixed it up really well as they kept rotating the strike along with hitting the odd boundary. Ruturaj then stepped on the accelerator as he smashed a couple of sixes over deep mid-wicket off Axar and then took a single to bring up his fifty off 37 balls as CSK accumulated 15 off the over and moved to 87/0 at the halfway mark.
While Conway dealt in fours, Ruturaj continued to hit sixes as he lofted one straight down the ground off Kuldeep and then thumped one over deep mid-wicket off the next ball for consecutive sixes. He then went berserk against Kuldeep and smashed three sixes in a row, all straight down the ground to make it 20 off the over. He added another to his sixes tally as he pulled one over fine leg off Nortje.
Conway brought up his fifty, off 33 balls as he whipped one over deep mid-wicket off Khaleel for another six. Sakariya came back and finally broke the marathon 141-run stand as he had Ruturaj (79 off 50) caught at deep mid-wicket off a short ball in the 15th over.
Conway and Shivam Dube continued the momentum with aggressive strokeplay as they took 19 off the Lalit Yadav over and then 12 off Nortje over. Dube then cracked consecutive sixes off Khaleel to bring up the 50-run stand off just 21 balls. Khaleel though bounced back to have Dube caught at long on, off the last ball as MS Dhoni walked out to the crease to a rousing reception.
CSK lost another wicket in the next over as Nortje had Conway (87 off 52) caught at long on. Ravindra Jadej arrived and set off straight away with a six and a four off Nortje. He finished off in style with a couple of swiped fours as Dhoni and Jadeja took 16 runs off the last over to finish on 223/3. CSK scored 75/2 off the last five overs.
Jadeja remained unbeaten on 20 off 7 balls while Dhoni remained not out on 5 off 4 balls.
Delhi Capitals introduced Prithvi Shaw as their Impact Player, replacing Khaleel while CSK introduced Matheesha Pathirana as their Impact Player, in place of Shivam Dube, at the start of the second innings.
