Capitals of Delhi 175 of 3 (Shaw 64, Pant 37 *, Dhawan 35, Chawla 2-33) Super Kings of Chennai 131 of 7 (du Plessis 43, Rabada 3-26, Nortje 2-21) by 44 runs
Three nights ago, they had settled for protecting their net execution rate after falling too far behind the requested rate in a 217 manhunt against the Rajasthan Royals. Today, the Chennai Super Kings were never up to the task in a 176 chase.
They faced the Delhi Capitals, who possess one of the best bowling attacks in the competition, but limping to 47-for-3 at the excess 10 mark said much more about the Super Kings’ hitting deficiencies. Ambati Rayudu, their match winner in his season opener against the Mumbai Indians, came out with a hamstring injury, but it will still worry the Super Kings that they haven’t been able to put together a lineup that could chase a goal. that, during testing, he needed them to score less than nine above.
Axar Patel cast narrow lines in a rare spell, at least for this season, of spin with the new ball, and eliminated the Super Kings’ only real source of first-rate muscle, Shane Watson. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje also proved difficult to escape, finding a bit of movement early before switching to longs. But without Rayudu, and without Suresh Raina, and with team management failing to promote Sam Curran on the order of breaking a monotonously right-handed top six, there was little power or invention in the Super Kings lineup to challenge the Capitals. bowlers.
A better batting lineup could have put more pressure on the Capitals bowling, and possibly it also showed a somewhat conservative hitting performance. After half a century since Prithvi Shaw had driven them to 88 without losing at the 10+ mark, the Capitals never found their best gear and failed to clear 180 despite losing just three wickets.
Shaw secures initial momentum for capitals
Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan are a right-left pairing, but otherwise similar hitters. They both enjoy the width, score a lot of square runs on the opposite side, and aren’t quite as fluid when the pins are on their body and they cramp for space. The Super Kings, who chose to chase despite the fact that the teams hitting first had won six of the first seven games, kept pace with the Powerplay and more often managed to limit Dhawan by space than Shaw.
Shaw finished the Powerplay with 27 of 23 balls, and Dhawan with 7 of 13. The Super Kings could have had Shaw early if they had seen an inside advantage for the goalkeeper against Deepak Chahar in the first over of the game, but they did not. ‘t and no one appealed.
The spinners were activated as soon as the fields could be extended, and Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja went for 28 and 24 each in their first two overs. Shaw was severe on Chawla’s leg roll, crashing him through the sheets and then back when he was offered shorter balls with a bit of width in his first over, and then used his feet to lift him twice over the sheets in your second. Jadeja, throwing a bunt too close to both hitters’ hitting arcs, was swept once by both hitters and driven to the limit of coverage by Dhawan.
A dim second half
Chawla returned through the second half of his spell, linking the Capitals with the wickets of both openers. The faster ball did the trick both times; pinning Dhawan to the front as he tried to do a reverse sweep, and beat Shaw for pace when he jumped out of his crease too early.
At 103-for-2 at 13, the Capitals were still making all the decisions with Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer on the fold and Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer yet to come, but the Super Kings bowlers kept them under control with some bowling. tight on a pitch that was starting to slow down.
Chahar and Josh Hazlewood, who came in for his IPL debut in place of Lungi Ngidi, tipped the ball through Pant and away from his favorite hitting arc, and while the left-hander saved some marginal errors on line and length, the Tactic ensured that it was not completely released. There was also an excellent 19th lap from Curran, lasting only four runs, as Iyer struggled to ward off the left arm that went around the wicket and crammed it for space as he threw his cutters onto the field.
A limit each from Pant and Stoinis to Hazlewood, and four free passes through an unusual span by MS Dhoni behind the stumps, gave the Capitals 14 in their latest over. They had only made 87 in their last 10 overs.
A chase that never was
The first two games of the season had brought M Vijay 22 runs on 29 balls. There was little flow here too, as Kagiso Rabada (test match length bowling with a touch of outswing and two slips in place) started the second inning with five points and a silent leg bend to the thin leg.
So Axar specifically approached Watson. Before this game, his head-to-head, in seven meetings, was 38 balls, 42 runs and five firings. Watson survived Axar’s first over, had a chance to land on the square leg off Nortje in the next over, threw Avesh Khan for a big six in the wide over over after that, before failing to survive the Axar’s second over. The ball was a typical Axar delivery: just under a length, skidding with the angle of the left arm around, designed to squeeze the right-hander to give it room. Watson served him with more power than most hitters could have, but he chose the outfielder in the middle of the field.
The Super Kings lost their second wicket on the last Powerplay ball, Vijay was unable to make a clean connection against a Nortje hard ball and missed a catch at midwicket.
The equation at that point was 142 of 14 overs. In theory it was still possible, but the Super Kings’ chances of victory quickly faded, with no limits in the next 5.2 overs thanks to a mix of decent bowling, a lack of urgency on the part of the hitters and an inability to hit the big ones. successes. when they tested them. Soon the Super Kings innings began to resemble an open net session, and a 54-run position at the fourth gate between Faf du Plessis and Kedar Jadhav simply served to fill up the time remaining until the overs were used up.
.
