Report: M52 - DD vs CSK
Match Recap
Wooden spoon holders Delhi Daredevils gave their fans reason to cheer after they defeated the Chennai Super Kings by 34 runs on Friday evening. After posting a competitive 162-5 batting first at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi, the Daredevils spinners strangled the visitor's batsmen with some tight wicket-to-wicket bowling and restricted CSK to 128-6.
In the evening, having been put in to bat, there was very little in terms of momentum in the Delhi Daredevils innings. After Prithvi Shaw threw his wicket away with yet another early-inning extravagant shot, captain Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant resurrected the innings with a 54-run partnership. But both batsmen were dismissed in the same over and there were two new men at the crease once again. Glenn Maxwell then attempted a reverse sweep against Ravindra Jadeja only to have his stumps rearranged. DD were 94-4 after 13.5 overs at that stage.
Vijay Shankar and Harshal Patel then stitched an unbeaten 65-run partnership to take their team to a respectable total. The pair took 26 runs off the final over bowled by Dwayne Bravo; Patel hit three sixes down the ground, while Shankar hit one into the stands at square-leg. The final over flourish meant DD got to 162-5; they had scored 60 runs in the last five overs. Both batsmen returned unbeaten on 36; Shankar struck two fours and two sixes in his 28-ball knock, while Harshal’s 18-ball vigil contained a boundary and four sixes.
For CSK, the pacers Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi and Shardul Thakur shared four wickets between them, while Ravindra Jadeja returned figures of 1-19 from his four overs.
The opening pair of Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu added 46 runs to give CSK a solid foundation for their chase. But once Rayudu was the second man out, the CSK innings lost momentum; the rest of the incoming batsmen struggled for timing on a pitch that had slowed down considerably. From 70-2 when Rayudu was dismissed at the end of the tenth over, CSK could only add 58 runs in the back end, eventually finishing at 128-6. The CSK innings had only 6 fours (and 7 sixes).
Trent Boult and Harshal Patel were impressive among the Daredevils quicks; the two pacers returned combined figures of 8-0-43-3, while Amit Mishra and Sandeep Lamicchane returned combined figures of 8-0-41-3.
Stand out batting performance
On a pitch where batting was difficult, only batsman stamped his authority in the middle; Ambati Rayudu extended his purple patch with yet another fine knock. Coming into this match with the confidence of an unbeaten hundred behind him, the CSK opener once again scored a stroke-filled half-century. He hit four boundaries and four sixes – three of the four sixes were through midwicket and one was straight down the ground. Rayudu was 8 from 10 after five overs, when he got stuck into the young Avesh Khan and hit him for three sixes and a four in an over that produced 22 runs.
Rayudu was dismissed against the run of play; he got one off the middle of the bat and the hit sounded sweet too, but unfortunately, the ball had more height than distance and landed down the throat of Glenn Maxwell at midwicket. By the time he was dismissed in the tenth over, Rayudu had made 50 out of CSK’s total of 70.
Stand out bowling performance
The young and the old in the Daredevils line-up – 17-year old Sandeep Lamichhane and 35-year old Amit Mishra – combined well to tie down the Super Kings batsmen. Lamichhane conceded only two runs in the one over he bowled with the new ball and gave away six singles in his second over (11th over of the innings). Given the ball a third time in the fourteenth over, he dismissed the dangerous Suresh Raina with a full-length googly – which the batsman hit to the fielder at deep midwicket. The teenager conceded a six off the first ball of his final over, but came back strongly and kept it down to a 11-run over. Lamicchane finished with impressive figures of 1-21.
Amit Mishra was handed the ball after the powerplay, and he made an immediate impact when he broke the opening partnership; Shane Watson was caught at long-off. The 35-year old should have had Suresh Raina the very next ball, but the wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant fluffed a difficult opportunity. Rayudu hit Mishra for a four through extra cover and six straight down the ground in the ninth over, but thereafter Mishra tightened the screws. He conceded only six runs in his remaining two overs to finish with outstanding figures of 4-0-20-1. The secret to Mishra’s success on the night was the outstanding grouping of deliveries on the pitch map.
Lungi Ngidi bowled three one-over spells and was good on each occasion. He conceded two runs in his first over, then derailed the DD innings with twin strikes in his second over, and bowled a tidy third over too – the sixteenth of the innings. The South African bowled very good lines and lengths consistently and conceded only one boundary in his entire spell. Ngidi’s victims were Shreyas – who gave himself room but couldn’t make contact and had his stumps rearranged, and Pant – whose top edge off an attempted heave landed down third man's throat.
Stat of the match
The unbeaten 65-run stand between Vijay Shankar and Harshal Patel would be the Delhi Daredevils’ best 6th wicket partnership in the IPL.
Brief Scores:
Delhi Daredevils 162-5 (Rishabh Pant 38, Vijay Shankar 36*, Harshal Patel 36*, Lungi Ngidi 2-14) beat
Chennai Super Kings 128-6 (Ambati Rayudu 50, Ravindra Jadeja, Trent Boult 2-20, Amit Mishra 2-20) by 34 runs.
Man of the Match:
Harshal Patel, for his all-round performance (16-ball 36* and 1-23).