CSK's last home fixture in the league phase showed the team's supremacy as they not only reached 179/4 in 20 overs from being 27/1 in the powerplay., but also by the way they blew away the Delhi capitals to just 99 in 16.2 overs after a stage in which the DC scorecard read 52.1 in 5.2 overs
Put in to bat first, CSK lost Watson in the 3rd over as the Queenslander pulled a half tracker by Suchith, to Axar Patel at Cow corner, In the second ball of the 3rd over without scoring even after facing 9 balls. At one point, CSK were 7-1 after 4 overs.
From that point to till Faf got out in the 14th over to Axar by virtue of a catch by Dhawan at long- off, Raina was in full flow in the 83 run stand, with his vintage touch and express pace Dull innings of Faf finally came to an end in the 41st ball he faced, but with 39 runs and just 2 fours and as many sixes.
Raina fell the very next over as Dhawan took another catch, This time a tricky catch in backward point area, but not before bringing back the CSK innings to life, With his 50th fifty in the T20 format.
15 overs were done and dusted. Yet, CSK were still just 102/3 When Jadeja was sent ahead of Rayudu and Dhoni was also yet to get off the mark.
Jadeja roared with two singles, a four and a six he got to play immediately since arrival. In his subsequent 5 deliveries, He added 13 more runs a four and a six before getting out caught by Morris off his own bowling as the South African completed a running catch by traveling all the way towards Mid-wicket. Even then, CSK were 145-4 in 18.3 overs and Dhoni was batting on 18(14).
As soon as Raydu came in he smacked a four and followed it up with a single. After smacking Morris's nasty full- toss over short fine (That delivery became a No ball as it was above the waist ) Dhoni took a single off the last ball. The recipe for a Last over Dhoni delight was very much in the making.
Dhoni didn't take a run off the first ball but took two of the second. The third delivery of Boult's over rocketed straight down the ground for four. Dhoni took a single off the fourth delivery.
Rayudu took strike to face the fifth ball, Failed to connect to it and it eventually became a wide ball. However, Dhoni was so quick to charge across for a single.
Having got the strike back, Dhoni smashed the next two balls to deep mid-wicket and deep square leg respectively, To not only power himself to 44*(22) but also to spoil Boults night by damaging his tally to 4-0-37-0 from what was actually 2-0-2-0.
CSK flew to 179/3 in 20 overs, With 77/1 being the score in the last 5 overs.
Chasing 180 to win DC faced first blow as Raina's fine catch at cover, sent Shaw back for 4, Off the bowling of Chahar in the very first over. An innings of Dhawan which had a four and a six, couldn't go past 19. Harbhajan cleaned up Dhawan as the latter misjudged a sweep completely and got bowled. Even after hitting a boundary and a single, Rishabh Pant's rush of blood bought an end to his innings as his uppish hit off Tahir, Found Bravo at long-off.
Shreyas Iyer was batting well at one and as a number 3 batsman would do. Yet, He had no help from his partners. Jadeja trapped Ingram in front for 1(5), To make it 66/4 from 52/1.
Axar, Rutherford fell for single-digit scores, and Morris fell for a golden duck one after the other. Tahir picked up the first two and Jadeja picked up Morriss. A catch at slip to Watson, A catch to Chahar at Backward point and a brilliant stumping by Dhoni, became elements of the respective dismissals.
Shreyas Iyer too fell in the same way as Morris, As Jadeja and Dhoni combo put an end to a literally standalone innings of Shreyas Iyer (44 off 31 with six fours and a six ) A run out followed as Watson's direct hit put curtains to Surchith in the aftermath of a mixup between Mishra and Surchith.
Imran Tahir topped the chart with 4/12(3.2) in an effort which gave DC their lowest total and biggest loss in this season.
MS Dhoni got yet another man of the match award.
CSK will face Kings XI Punjab at Mohali on Sunday evening 4 P.M, In its 14th and final league match of the season.
Match Summary
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Colin Ingram, Sherfane Rutherford, Axar Patel, Jagadeesha Suchith, Sandeep Lamichhane, Amit Mishra, Trent Boult
CSK: In : MS Dhoni, Faf and Jadeja come
Out: Dhruv Shorey, Santner, and Murali Vijay.
DC In : Trent Boult, Jagadeesha Suchith
Out: Kagiso Rabada, Ishanth Sharma
DC opted to bowl
- Kumaran Kumanan
Images Courtesy: IPLT20 BCCI