Comprehensive Delhi beat Chennai to top the points table

Tags: Indian T20 League 2020, Chennai XI vs Delhi XI, 7th Match at Dubai, Sep 25, 2020, Chennai XI, Delhi XI

Published on: Sep 25, 2020

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

The Delhi Capitals eased to a 44 run win over the Chennai Super Kings in the 7th match of the IPL 2020 as they moved to the top of the points table. CSK’s intent was in question again as they left too much for the end and weren’t able to achieve it, for a second time in a row.

The Delhi openers, Shaw and Dhawan, had a watchful start as only 15 runs came off the first 3 overs. CSK missed out on a chance early on as they failed to hear an inside edge from Shaw off Chahar off the second ball of the match, and the opener would go on to make them pay for it. Slowly, both of the batsmen started to pick up the scoring rate, especially Shaw, as he stroked two boundaries off Chawla as soon as the fielding restrictions were lifted. Dhawan welcomed Jaedeja into the bowling attack with a six and a four as there was some distinct acceleration visible in the play.

Sitting pretty on 88-0 at the halfway stage, DC were looking set for a total in excess of 190. But that is when CSK made a commendable comeback. Piyush Chawla, who isn’t having the best of IPLs, picked up both the openers to bring the scoring rate down. New batsmen Pant and Iyer took some time to settle in and that affected the Delhi momentum. Pant did manage to hit some fours but Iyer struggled in the death overs and got out to Sam Curran in the penultimate over. Pant and Stoinis hit a boundary each as their team finished at a respectable 175-3, though much lower than what they would have anticipated.

Chasing a gettable 176 with momentum on their side, CSK had a quiet start with only 10 runs coming from the first 3 overs. Shreyas made an excellent call to have Axar Patel opening the bowling alongside Rabada as Watson had already gotten out to the left arm spinner five times before in IPL. Axar made it six times as Watto hit a pull shot straight to Hetmyer. Vijay too, got out to Nortje as he continued his miserable run in this year’s IPL.

Youngster Ruturaj Gaikwad came and went quickly as the required rate rose up to 12. Kedar Jadhav and du Plessis were staging a brief comeback as they targeted an erratic Avesh Khan. Jadhav however, got out in the 16th over with 78 runs still required of 26 balls. MS Dhoni finally came ahead of Jadeja and Curran and started quickly in quest of the uphill task. Rabada came back to get rid of his South African teammate du Plessis for a fighting 43 and with that, effectively their hopes of a win vanished. Jadeja and Dhoni struggled to hit the boundaries in the final overs as CSK fell short of the target by 44 runs.

-- Jatin Shad

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