Delhi Capitals 191 for 5 (Warner 52, Pant 51, Shaw 43, Pathirana 3-31) beat Chennai Super Kings 171 for 6 (Rahane 45, Dhoni 37*, Mitchell 34, Mukesh 3-21, Khaleel 2-21) by 20 runs
At approximately 11 on Sunday night, Visakhapatnam came alive. ‘Hosts’ Delhi Capitals were on their way to their first win, but the result suddenly seemed irrelevant.
MS Dhoni strode to the middle to bat for the first time since last year’s final and immediately sent the decibel levels soaring, walloping his first ball for four behind square leg and bludgeoning his third through extra-cover.
When he hit Khaleel Ahmed for an inside-out six in the next over, the crowd threatened to blow the roof off. Chennai Super Kings still needed 46 off 12; one run more than a side had ever made off the last two overs to win in the IPL.
Mukesh Kumar was tasked with bowling a clutch over. His figures until then read 2-0-16-3. One more good over would close the game out, more or less, and he delivered, bowling a series of wide yorkers that Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja couldn’t get underneath.
The over went for 5, and Super Kings needed 41 off six. Impossible if extras didn’t come into it.
That was no reason for the crowd to stop. Dhoni was on strike. They wanted him to turn the clock back. And he did, walloping Anrich Nortje for two fours and two sixes. Dhoni finished 37 not out off 16, Super Kings fell short by 20 runs, but you couldn’t quite say if the fans in yellow were disappointed at the result or ecstatic at watching their hero do his thing.
After he scythed a full-toss for six to finish the game, the realisation dawned that the Capitals had picked up their first win of the season, a result set up by David Warner and Rishabh Pant with the bat, and finished off by Khaleel and Mukesh.
More to follow…
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
