NE SPORTS BUREAU
SHARJAH, OCT 17
Shikhar Dhawan scored his maiden ton and Axar Patel hammered three sixes in the final over as Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by five wickets in Match 34 of the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in Sharjah on Saturday.
Needing 180 runs to win, DC lost Prithvi Shaw’s wicket in the first over after Deepak Chahar completed a caught and bowled dismissal. The right-arm pacer scalped one more wicket in the powerplay after Sam Curran held on to a sharp catch at backward point to get Ajinkya Rahane out.
Dhawan was joined by Shreyas Iyer in the fifth over and the pair scored 12 in the final over of the powerplay, with Iyer hitting a six and Dhawan hit a four to take DC to 42/2.
The left-hander got a reprieve in the next over after he was dropped by Chahar at mid-wicket. Dhawan then hit two fours – one streaky, managing to beat the diving Shane Watson and another of a strong sweep – to take DC past fifty.
Dhawan targeted Karn Sharma in the 9th over, creaming two fours and moved past his third successive fifty-plus score in the IPL 2020 before getting a second reprieve in the space of a couple of overs.
The Dhawan show continued as he hit two mores in the 11th over to move to 61 off 34 balls as DC reached 88/2.
In the following over, CSK managed to break the 68-run partnership between Dhawan and Iyer when Dwayne Bravo dismissed the DC skipper for 21.
DC crossed the 100-run mark in the 13th over after Marcus Stoinis hit a six and a four off Karn Sharma. Meanwhile, Dhawan moved closer to 80, hitting two fours in the next two overs.
CSK had another chance to see the back of Dhawan in the 16th over, but Ambati Rayudu failed to pouch the ball off Shardul Thakur’ bowling. CSK though managed to get their fourth wicket in the same over as Rayudu held on to a chance to get Stoinis out.
With DC needing 41 off 24 balls, Dhawan went after Curran, creaming the left-arm pacer for a six and a four, and moved into the 90s. DC scored 9 off the 18th over as Dhawan sailed past his previous best IPL score of 97.
Dhawan brought up his maiden ton in the penultimate over, but Curran bowled an excellent, conceding just 4 runs and scalping a wicket of Alex Carey.
DC needed 17 from the final over to close out the game and CSK went for Jadeja to bowl that over. Jadeja started the proceedings with a wide and conceded a run on the first legal delivery of the over.
With 15 needed from five balls, Axar had no other option but to go big and he did. He slog-swept the second ball of the over for a six and then followed it up with another maximum over long-off. Axar then ran two on the fourth ball of the over and with just 1 needed from the last two balls, hammered another six to take DC home.
Earlier, after electing to bat, CSK lost their first wicket early after Sam Curran got out for zero in the first over bowled Tushar Deshpande. The left-hander edged one towards the third-man where Anrich Nortje completed a fine catch.
With Kagiso Rabada bowling a maiden, DC kept things tight, conceding just two runs from the first two overs.
Shane Watson, who had joined Faf du Plessis in the middle after Curran’s fall, hit two fours in the third over. du Plessis joined the party in the fifth over as he took on Anrich Nortje, hitting the speedster for two fours and a six.
The sixth over of the game saw a collision course between du Plessis and Rabada after the two bumped into each other. Fortunately, du Plessis was up and ready to bat and CSK moved to 39 after the end of the powerplay.
The du Plessis-Watson duo completed the fifty-run stand in the ninth over and hit three fours in the next as CSK moved past 70 at the halfway stage of the game. du Plessis added 13 more runs to his tally in the next over as he hit a six and a four off Deshpande to move closer to his half-century.
While du Plessis brought up his fifty in the 12th over, CSK also lost Watson in the same over for 36 after Nortje disturbed the timber to give DC their second wicket. du Plessis got a life in the next over after Dhawan could not hold on to a catch in the deep. However, a couple of overs later, Dhawan made up for that drop as he took a diving catch running in from long-on as Rabada picked up his 50th IPL wicket and ended du Plessis’ stay in the middle.
While Ambati Rayudu scored at a brisk pace and moved to 34 off 18 balls, DC picked their fourth wicket as Nortje dismissed MS Dhoni.
CSK were 134/4 after the end of the 17th over and needed some big hits to end the innings on a high. Ravindra Jadeja did just that. The left-hander hit as many as four sixes in the last three overs while Rayudu hit one more as CSK scored 45 runs in the last three overs.
While Jadeja remained unbeaten on 33 off 13 balls, Rayudu scored 45 not out from 25 deliveries to take CSK to 179/4.
Brief Scores:
Delhi Capitals 185/5 (Shikhar Dhawan 101*, Marcus Stoinis 24; Deepak Chahar 2/18) beat Chennai Super Kings 179/4 (Faf du Plessis 58, Ambati Rayudu 45*; Anrich Nortje 2/44) by five wickets.
