In a season where scoring 200 or more, whether batting first or second, has become a near-everyday phenomenon, witnessing a low-scoring affair can be something of a sight for sore eyes.
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Venues such as the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and Wankhede Stadium very much are batting havens where even a target in excess of 210 isn’t safe. Bowlers, however, certainly hold authority at grounds such as Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, aka Chepauk, where Chennai Super Kings (CSK) emerged triumphant over Delhi Capitals (DC) on Wednesday in a match where only one batter managed to cross the 30-run mark.
And in the low-scoring affair at Chepauk where the bowling units of both teams found plenty of help and were able to dictate terms for an extended phase of the innings, it was ultimately a series of cameos from the Chennai middle-order that proved to be the difference and resulted in a 27-run win for the home team.
Both teams struggled in the first half of their innings. While CSK got off to a promising start, reaching 49/1 at the end of the powerplay, the DC spinners were clearly on top in the next six — which yielded just 33 runs for Chennai for the loss of three wickets. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel accounted for both openers while the Yadavs — Kuldeep and Lalit — bagged a wicket each.
The Capitals had it worse, with powerplay specialist Deepak Chahar removing DC skipper David Warner and hard-hitting keeper-batter Phil Salt in each of his first two overs. A mix-up between all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and Impact Player Manish Pandey, along with some excellent fielding by Ajinkya Rahane, resulted in the former getting run out for 5, resulting in Delhi getting reduced to 25/3.
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Thanks to a 15-run fifth over though, Delhi managed to reach 47/3 at the end of their powerplay — two short of what Chennai managed — with Pandey forging a steady partnership with Rilee Rossouw that took Delhi to 65/3 at the halfway stage, from where they had plenty of wickets in hand and two set batters at the crease to launch an all-out assault.
CSK’s middle-order to the rescue
The difference, however, was the manner in which the two sides batted in the second half of the innings. Lalit, who had collected a superb catch off his own bowling to dismiss Rahane in his previous over, ended up getting smashed for 23 runs by in-form all-rounder Shivam Dube and middle-order batter Ambati Rayudu in a game-changing 14th over, which shifted the momentum in favour of the home side.
And though both Dube and Rayudu departed shortly after moving into the 20s, the responsibility of guiding CSK to a competitive total was then taken over by skipper Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja, the former smashing Khaleel Ahmed for two sixes and a four in a 21-run penultimate over that helped Chennai reach 160.
Batting as low as No 8, Dhoni once again highlighted his ability to produce match-defining cameos at the ripe-old age of 41 with his nine-ball 20, and later spoke about how his role as a batter has evolved this season. Dhoni was also seen limping while running between the wickets, and later revealed an instruction he had given to his teammates.
DO NOT MISS!
When @msdhoni cut loose! 💪 💪
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“This is what my job is, I have told them this is what I am supposed to do, don’t make me run a lot and it has been working. This is what I need to do, happy to contribute.
“I felt 166-170 was a good score. But as a batting unit, we can do better. The good thing is Moeen (Ali) and Jaddu (Jadeja) got a chance to bat. As we get closer to the last phase of the tournament, it’s important that everybody has a few deliveries under their belt,” Dhoni said during the post-match presentation.
Delhi, on the other hand, put their money on the Pandey-Rossouw pair to tee off not long after carefully building a partnership under pressure. Chennai, however, have one of the more potent spin pairs in the tournament in Jadeja and Moeen Ali, and the two went about business with precision in the middle overs, giving absolutely nothing away and drying the runs up in the process.
Both Pandey and Rossouw would succumb to pressure and depart within the 15-over mark, leaving Delhi needing 77 to win from the last five overs with two new batters at the crease. And while Axar is quite handy a batter down the order with the ability to single-handedly guide his team to victory, a six and a couple of boundaries were all he could manage on the day before perishing in the 18th, taking Delhi’s hopes of pulling off a fifth victory in six matches with him.
DC, in the end, fell well short of the target and the 27-run defeat, which keeps them at the bottom of the table, has now made it very difficult, if not impossible, to secure a top-four finish by the end of next week. CSK, on the other hand, remain at the second spot, and together with defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT), appear to have escaped the mid-table scrum.
A victory in their next outing, against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday at home, will all but confirm their place in the knockouts for a 12th time in 16 editions.
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