New Delhi, Mahendra Singh Dhoni might have lost the toss, but Chennai Super Kings used the conditions beautifully at Delhi Capitals’ home ground to restrict them to just 147/6 in their 20 overs at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium on Tuesday. Dwayne Bravo was the star of the show for Chennai as he finished with figures of 3/33 from his four overs.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan struggled his way to a 47-ball 51 as the Delhi Capitals managed to score just 29 runs in the last five overs. This after the Delhi batsmen picked 17 runs from the 14th over of the match from Bravo.
A senior member of the team, one would have expected Dhawan to make it count after spending quality time in the middle, but he failed to accelerate after scoring a laborious fifty as the Chennai bowlers slowed things down by bowling a tight line and length.
Earlier, Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bat first on a Kotla wicket that wore a typical low and slow look. But taking advantage of the new ball, both Prithvi Shaw and Dhawan looked to take the attack to the Chennai bowlers.
It looked to be going good initially as Shaw started positively against Deepak Chahar, but the pacer had the last laugh as he dismissed Shaw (24) in the 5th over. DC ended the powerplay at 43/1.
The wicket slowed things down quite a bit as Iyer and Dhawan found the going really tough against the Chennai bowlers who slowed the pace and looked to take advantage of the wicket.
Having struggled their way to 65/1 after 10 overs, DC lost skipper Iyer in the 12th over as he was trapped right in front of the wicket by Imran Tahir for a 20-ball 18.
With the scoreboard looking pretty ordinary, Rishabh Pant looked to take the attack to the Chennai bowlers and looked good till Bravo dismissed him in the 16th over, caught brilliantly at deep square-leg by Shardul Thakur. Pant had to walk back for a 12-ball 25 as the score read 120/3.
Colin Ingram didn’t bother the scorers much as he was dismissed by Bravo in the same over for just 2 and it was all about looking to play catch-up after that for DC.
