An all-round performance from the Delhi Capitals saw them get off the mark with a 20-run win over the Chennai Super Kings in their Tata Indian Premier League match-up at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday night.
It was the Capitals' first win of the competition at their third attempt, while it was the Super Kings first loss after they picked up two good wins to start, which will shake up the table.
Batting first half centuries from David Warner and Rishabh Pant helped the Capitals gets to a strong 191/5 in their 20 overs, before some top bowling from Mukesh Kumar, 3-21, and Khaleel Ahmed, 2-21, helped limit the Super Kings to 171/6 in their chase.
Season’s 1️⃣st Win 🙌@DelhiCapitals get off the mark in #TATAIPL 2024 with a collective team effort in Visakhapatnam 🙌
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The Super Kings' chase got off to a disastrous start as Ahmed had Rutaraj Gaikwad (1) edging behind to keeper Pant at the end of the first over and Rachin Ravindra (2) skying the ball to Tristan Stubbs at mid-on at the end of the third to leave them struggling on 9/2.
Ajinkya Rahane, 45 off 30 balls (5x4, 2x6), and Daryl Mitchell, 34 off 26 (1x4, 2x6), then combined for the biggest partnership of the innings, sharing in a 68-run stand that got their side back into the contest.
They took the Super Kings to 32/2 at the end of the powerplay and then picked up the rate towards the halfway point of the innings with to reach 75/2.
In the next over Axar Patel made the crucial breakthrough, smartly taking a good reaction return catch to get rid of Mitchell with the score 75/3, before Shivam Dube (18) and Rahane took the Super Kings over the hundred run mark in the 13th over.
Kumar finally joined the attack in the 14th over and claimed two big strikes, having Rahane caught at long-on by David Warner and Sameer Rizvi caught for a first-ball duck at short third man by Ahmed as they slipped to 102/5.
At the start of the 17th Dube hit Kumar straight to Stubbs at long-off and with them on 120/6 the game was all but done with too much to do.
However, crowd favourite MS Dhoni, 37* off 16 (4x4, 3x6), made sure it would be an entertaining finish to the match as he got stuck into the death bowlers and along with Ravindra Jadeja, 21* off 17 (2x4), shared in an unbeaten 51-run partnership off 23 balls to close out the match.
Vintage Dhoni 👌#TATAIPL fans were treated to some strong hitting by MS Dhoni
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FIFTY FOR WARNER
At the start of play the Capitals won the toss and chose to bat, with Warner hammering his way to 52 off 35 balls (5x4, 3x6) at the top of the order to get his side off to a flying start, before Pant produced the finishing touches striking 51 off 32 (4x4, 3x6) to help get his team to a defendable total.
Opener Prithvi Shaw also got stuck into the Super Kings bowlers at the start, cracking 44 off 27 (4x4, 2x6), with his 93-run opening partnership with Warner the highlight of the innings.
The Capitals' innings got off to a steady start with 24 coming off the first four overs before Warner took aim at Deepak Chahar’s fifth over, crashing a six and two fours as 18 came off it.
The final over of the powerplay saw another boundary from Warner, followed by three-in-a-row from Shaw as they crunched 20 off it to power to 62/0 by the end of it.
A six from Shaw and a four from Warner in the seventh from Ravindra Jadeja saw another 13 off the over and they were cruising at 75/0.
In the ninth over Warner slog swept a six off Jadeja and then knocked a single a few balls later to reach his fifty, but in the 10th over, after being dropped, he was finally dismissed trying to reverse scoop Mustafizir Rahman, but was brilliantly caught one handed by Matheesha Pathirana leaving them on 93/1.
𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗥 🤩
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Matheesha Pathirana takes a one hand diving catch to dismiss David Warner who was on song tonight
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Shaw fell in the next over after slog sweeping Jadeja for six to get his side over the hundred run mark; he then tried to cut the next ball only to edge to keeper Dhoni as they slipped to 103/2.
Mitchell Marsh, 18 off 12 (2x4, 1x6), joined Pant at the crease and they added 31 to the total before a double strike set the Capitals back.
Pathirana bowled Marsh and Stubbs for a second-ball duck with brilliant toe crunching yorkers to reduce the Capitals to 134/4 after 15 overs.
It was largely the Pant show in the closing overs as he dominated a 44-run stand with Patel (7*), and it was in the 19th over that he smashed Pathirana for a six over long-on followed by two fours to reach his half century, before falling the next ball caught by Gaikwad at long-off.
Rishabh Pant departs for a well made 51(32)
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Maheesha Pathirana strikes again 🙌
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Pathirana finished as the pick of the bowlers by far with figures of 3-31.
DELHI CAPITALS: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant (captain/wkt), Ricky Bhui, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni (wkt), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mustafizur Rahman