An opening partnership of 141 between Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad set up the Chennai Super Kings for a rampant victory by 77-runs against the Delhi Capitals in their final IPL group match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday.
Chennai posted a daunting total of 223 for three after captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat first and Delhi Capitals succumbed to 146 for nine in reply, with captain David Warner (86) fighting a lone battle against smart, disciplined bowling from the men in yellow.
Deepak Chahar enjoyed the outstanding figures of 4-0-22-3 with Sri Lankan ‘slinger’ Matheesha Pathirana again outstanding at the death with 2-22 including the wicket of Warner who was caught at long off in the 19th over.
The result almost certainly guarantees Chennai second place on the log and two attempts to reach the final as they will play in the Eliminator match if they lose the Qualifier play-off against log-leaders the Gujarat Titans.
Gaikwad top-edged a hook shot to deep square leg in the 15th over to depart for a fine 79 from 50 balls with three fours and seven sixes overcoming a cautious start to accelerate in a blaze of boundaries to every part of the ground.
New Zealander Conway made the faster start of the two openers and looked set for a century before mistiming a drive against Anrich Nortje to long on for 87 from 52 balls with an array of classic, conventional drives and a few creative ones amongst his 11 fours and three sixes.
Shivam Dube launched three huge, straight sixes in his 22 from only nine balls before he, too, holed out to long on but the tempo was maintained by Ravindra Jadeja who muscled three fours and another six in his unbeaten 20 from just seven balls.
Dhoni delighted his devoted followers by appearing at number four in the batting order but managed just five not out from the four deliveries he faced.
It was a chastening afternoon for the home side’s bowlers with five of the six used conceding over 10 runs per over, Lalit Yadav’s 12 balls costing 32 runs while fellow new-ball operator Khaleel Ahmed’s four overs went for 45.
Delhi were the first team to be eliminated from play-off contention and remained in ninth place despite Warner’s seven fours and five sixes from 58 deliveries faced. No other Delhi batsman reached 20 with Axar Patel’s 15 the next highest score.
DELHI CAPITALS: David Warner (captain), Philip Salt (wkt), Rilee Rossouw, Yash Dhull, Aman Hakim Khan, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Khaleel Ahmed, Anrich Nortje
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (captain & wkt), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana