The Delhi Daredevils landed a huge blow on Tuesday when they defeated table-toppers Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in Raipur, in the process ending their streak of seven successive defeats against the opponent. After restricting the visitors to a mere 119, the hosts chased down the runs comfortably, piloted by opener Shreyas Iyer’s half-century and his 69-run partnership with Yuvraj Singh.

Needing to get a run-a-ball, the hosts sauntered to a win despite losing opener Quinton de Kock and skipper JP Duminy in the first five overs. The 20-year old Shreyas converted the pace of the ball to boundaries on most occasions and mostly through playing proper cricket strokes. He cut, drove and flicked, used his feet well, and on rare occasions used unconventional strokes to send the ball on its way to the boundary. The opener brought up his half-century in the thirteenth over, needing 36 balls to get to the milestone.

Shreyas was involved in a 69-run partnership with Yuvraj Singh, who made 32 from 28 balls. DD were running away with the match through the third wicket pair, before Yuvraj Singh’s slog-sweep off Pawan Negi landed in the hands of Mohit Sharma at midwicket. In the seventeenth over, when Shreyas punched a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja to long-on, the job had been done; the opener remained unbeaten on 70, batted out 49 balls, and hit ten boundaries and a six. Ishwar Pandey (2-27) and Pawan Negi (2-28) were the wicket-takers for CSK.

Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss and opting to bat, CSK struggled to come terms with a sluggish surface in Raipur and could post a mere 119 runs on the board. Stroke making was certainly difficult and runs were at a premium; deliveries on the stumps were hard to get away and even the efforts by batsmen to generate their own pace did not reap too many rewards.

The first over of the innings was a maiden, only one run was scored in the second over, and at the end of the sixth over – which was a wicket maiden – CSK had crawled to 16 for 1 – the lowest score at the end of Powerplay this season. Zaheer Khan was fabulous with the new ball, bowling three of the first six overs, while conceding only six runs and picking up the big wicket of Brendon McCullum (11 from 21 balls).

Dwayne Smith, after scoring 18 from 24 balls, was dismissed in the ninth over when he was beaten by an inswinger and was rapped on the pads in front of the stumps. Suresh Raina perished in the following over when he attempted to force the pace against Jayant Yadav, but chipped the ball to the fielder at short cover. CSK had crawled to 46 for 3 at the half-way mark.

Faf du Plessis, who would eventually be the innings top-scorer, and MS Dhoni ran well between the wickets, and added 37 runs in what would be the biggest partnership of the innings. The former was dismissed in the sixteenth over when he attempted to run an Albie Morkel delivery to thirdman but dragged the ball back onto his stumps. du Plessis made 29 from 23 balls and hit three boundaries.

Dhoni picked out the 17th over bowled by Yuvraj Singh as an opportunity to take a few risks, and was successful in hitting a six and four. But in the following over, he fell victim to a well-disguised slower delivery from Zaheer Khan and chipped the ball to Shahbaz Nadeem at mid off; he made 27 from 24 balls and hit three fours and a six.

The CSK innings, which concluded with the score reading 119 for 6, had 60 dot balls, 10 fours and three sixes.

The Delhi Daredevils bowlers were fantastic on the day. Zaheer Khan was the most impressive of the lot; the left-arm quick returned with astounding figures of 4-1-9-2 in a spell that had 19 dot balls – the most bowled by a bowler in an IPL match. The left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem opened the bowling and bowled four overs on the trot, returning with figures of 4-1-18-0. The off-spinner Jayant Yadav returned figures of 2-0-8-1. Albie Morkel was the other DD bowler to get among the wickets; he dismissed Dwayne Smith and du Plessis while conceding 21 runs in his three overs.

Brief Scores

Chennai Super Kings 119-6 in 20.0 Overs (Faf du Plessis 29, Zaheer Khan 2-9) lost to Delhi Daredevils 120-4 in 16.4 Overs (Shreyas Iyer 70*, Ishwar Pandey 2-27)