Chennai Super Kings beat Delhi Daredevils by 86 runs in Pepsi Indian Premier League season six at the vociferous crowd packed Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi on 18th April Thursday night. With this match,Delhi suffered six defeats in six matches.
The end result has placed Delhi almost on the verge of elimination even before the tournament was halfway complete.
Chennai exploded during their innings to 169 for 4 in 20 overs after electing to bat first. Delhi's pursuit fizzled out even before the powerplay overs ended which instantly brought the anti-climax. David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene and Virender Sehwag contributed 39 for 4 in 5.1 overs before leaving for the pavilion.
Warner and Sehwag fell to wild strokes. Jayawardene went from lucky to unlucky within two balls. He was first squared up fully by a Chris Morris delivery. Mahendra Singh Dhoni caught the ball but the umpire turned down the appeal. After two balls, he was adjudged leg before to a delivery that would have easily missed the leg stump. Sehwag holed out to deep midwicket off the very next delivery. Horror started from this point. It was just a question of minimising the damage for Delhi, who were ultimately bowled out for 83 in 17.3 overs with the Haryana pace bowler Mohit Sharma, returning figures of 3 for 10.
Chennai, who were setting a target for the first time, advanced the game tranquilly unlike the previous matches. They started with a bang courtesy Michael Hussey (65 not out) and Suresh Raina (30), who set the stage with a 60-run second wicket stand. Dhoni brought the roof down with a violent attack, smashing a 23-ball 44-run, with the ball hitting the ground. He was also helped by some poor fielding by Ajit Agarkar, who missed a catch at long-off while he was on 17. This might have triggered Dhoni's explosion as Chennai scored 109 off the last 10 overs.
Delhineeded Sehwag and Jayawardene to pilot the chase. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The lower middle-order was fighting a losing cause. The fourth batsman Virender Sehwag scored 13-ball-17 with the help of a boundary and a six fell victim of Mohit Sharma. Pacer Mohit Sharma awarded Chennai a great start as he bowled out David Warner and then trapped Manprit Juneja leg before during the second over. Chris Morris dismissed Mahela Jayawardene from the pitch to hit Delhi with a severe third blow. Jeeavn Mendis was the fifth man to be dismissed after a horrible run-out. The sixth wicket Irfan Pathan was bowled by Ravindra Jadeja and finally caught by Dwayne Bravo at long on after making two. Off-spinner R Ashwin struck seventh blow on Delhi by sending Ajit Agarkar to the pavilion during the 14th over whose shot was caught by Bravo after encountering seven deliveries.
Kedhar Jadhav (31) was the highest scorer for the second consecutive game and at the end that was hardly noted.
In fact Chennai dominated the entire game comfortably as none of the bowlers were challenged. They have recorded their third victory in five matches which is a marvelous achievement.
