Chennai Super Kings took a confident step towards assuring themselves a berth in the Tata Indian Premier League play-offs with a well-planned, neatly executed and hard-earned 27-run victory at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday, consigning Delhi Capitals to the bottom of the table and the prospect of being on the sidelines during the business end of the high-profile tournament. Here are our takeaways from the game.
Dhoni and Chahar make a difference on sticky wicket
On a track that could finally – after five games – be branded a typical Chepauk strip, batters could not break into free strokeplay. The outcome of the match was virtually decided in a span of eight overs on either side of the half-way break. Though the margin of victory appeared huge, Chennai had to strain every sinew to earn that.
After being restricted to 66 for 3 in the first 10 overs, Chennai scored 101 runs in the second half, including 50 in the final five overs to finish with a total of 167 for 8. MS Dhoni led the final charge, as Chennai hit three fours and slammed seven sixes in those 10 overs to wrest control.
Deepak Chahar’s twin strikes in his first two overs and Mitchell Marsh’s horrible run-out pushed the visiting side to the point of no return, especially with Dhoni offering 10 overs of spin to the Delhi batters. It was almost as if Delhi believed that their chances of chasing the target depended only on belting the leather off the ball in the powerplay.
David Warner slashed a short ball from Chahar to Ajinkya Rahane in the covers in the first over. Phil Salt was done in by a slower ball and chopped a ballooned catch to Ambati Rayudu at mid-on in Chahar’s second over. Manish Pandey then gifted Chennai Mitchell Marsh’s wicket by selling him a dummy after setting off for a run only to change his mind.
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Spinners and Pathirana keep pressure on
After that, it was just a question of Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali bowling their overs with accuracy and taking the game farther away from Delhi. Pandey and Rilee Rossouw battled for a while, but Delhi ended up facing a growing mountain of a challenge and did not have anyone around to swing things their way.
Expectedly, Dhoni demanded and got good bowling through the innings. Maatheesha Pathirana reaped rewards for his pacy yorkers towards the tail-end of the innings. But Delhi would have to concede that they set about the chase without a plan in place, let alone an alternative plan after losing three wickets in a hurry.
Khaleel gives Delhi the early initiative
Earlier, no Chennai batter was given the freedom to stay at the wicket long enough, but the lower half created opportunities to go over the boundary often enough. As many as seven home players got to the 20s but none of them was able to kick on to make a big score. The final flourish by Jadeja and, especially, Dhoni hurt Delhi.
Yet, when Khaleel Ahmed bowled two superb overs at the start and the two left-arm spinners, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, backed that with their own set of challenges, Delhi seemed to be in a position to secure a first victory at Chepauk after 13 years.
Khaleel started by getting Devon Conway to feather the cricket ball on its way to Salt’s gloves behind the stumps, but nobody seemed to have heard the faint nick. UltraEdge showed a mild tremor in the replays. As his luck would have it, a scratchy Conway benefited both times the TV umpire was called into play in Lalit Yadav’s first over.
Conway did not survive long, falling leg before wicket to Axar’s first delivery. With Ruturaj Gaikwad falling just after the powerplay and Moeen unable to get the ball away, Chennai slid from 49 for 1 in six overs to 66 for 3 at the halfway stage.
Lalit, the missile-catcher
Lalit showed exceptional reflexes to take a return catch from Rahane to make things worse for Chennai. He stopped on his follow through and flung himself low to his right to intercept the missile launched from Rahane’s bat. It was at this stage that Shivam Dube stepped up the plate with successive sixes off Lalit’s bowling.
Dhoni the game-changer
A less than fully fit Dhoni’s two sixes and a four off Khaleel in the 19th over were quite the game-changers much to the delight of the full house at Chepauk. Though Marsh picked up Jadeja and Dhoni in the final over, Chennai had done enough to give the bowlers a total to defend.
Dube confusion
Dhoni said Dube had made way for Ambati Rayudu, quite forgetting that Dube was one of the seven Chennai players who featured in the team sheet in all 12 matches. Dhoni himself, Conway, Gaikwad, Jadeja, Rayudu, and Tushar Deshpande were the others, with Moeen missing out on just one match and Rahane two.
On the contrary, Delhi had just three players who have started all 11 matches – Warner, Axar and Kuldeep. Though they won four of their previous five games after a disastrous start, they were left searching for consistency from the top-order bats. They did not find it in this game and are now staring down the barrel of the gun.