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New Delhi, March 26
Shane Watson and Suresh Raina made batting look easy on a lifeless track as Chennai Super Kings coasted to a six-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals in their IPL encounter.
Shikhar Dhawan’s painstaking half-century was the only silver lining in Delhi Capitals’ sub-par total of 147/6, which the defending champions overtook with two balls to spare. The scoreboard might suggest it to be a close game but CSK were always in control of the chase despite a lot of balls being wasted by Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the back end of the innings. Delhi batted first and run-scoring looked an arduous job with a middle-order collapse dashing their hopes of a big total.
But when CSK began their chase, it seemed Watson (44) and Suresh Raina (30) were batting on a different track. They hit eight fours and four sixes between them to add 52 runs in just four overs and there was no recovery from that onslaught.
War of words
Ishant Sharma (0/28) bowled too many length balls, which were driven with disdain and short ones were cut ferociously. Five boundaries off Ishant’s three overs made the CSK task a lot easier. Kagiso Rabada was erratic and an altercation with Watson only disturbed his concentration. By the time Watson was out, it was a formality for the CSK to record their second victory but Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav (27) made an easy chase look difficult.
Earlier, Dhawan played the role of sheet anchor in his 51 off 47 balls that had seven boundaries but unfortunately failed to accelerate during the final overs. — PTI
SCOREBOARD
DELHI CAPITALS
Runs Balls 4 6
P Shaw c Watson b Chahar 24 16 5 0
S Dhawan c Thakur b Bravo 51 47 7 0
S Iyer lbw b Tahir 18 20 0 1
R Pant c Thakur b Bravo 25 13 2 1
C Ingram c Raina b Bravo 2 2 0 0
K Paul b Jadeja 0 4 0 0
C Ingram c Raina b Bravo 2 2 0 0
A Patel not out 9 9 1 0
R Tewatia not out 11 9 1 0
Extras: (lb-2, w-5) 7
Total: (6 wickets; 20 overs) 147
FOW: 1-36, 2-79, 3-120, 4-122, 5-123, 6-127
Bowling O M R W
Deepak Chahar 4 0 20 1
Shardul Thakur 2 0 19 0
Harbhajan Singh 4 0 30 0
Ravindra Jadeja 4 0 23 1
Imran Tahir 2 0 20 1
Dwayne Bravo 4 0 33 3
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
Runs Balls 4 6
S Watson st Pant b Mishra 44 26 4 3
A Rayudu c Iyer b Sharma 5 5 1 0
S Raina c Pant b Mishra 30 16 4 1
K Jadhav c Pant b Rabada 27 34 2 0
MS Dhoni not out 32 35 2 1
D Bravo not out 4 3 1 0
Extras: (lb-5, nb-1, w-2) 8
Total: (4 wicket; 19.4 overs) 150
FOW: 1-21, 2-73, 3-98, 4-146
Bowling O M R W
Ishant Sharma 3 0 28 1
Axar Patel 4 0 16 0
Kagiso Rabada 3.4 0 26 1
Amit Mishra 4 0 35 2
Rahul Tewatia 2 0 20 0
Keemo Paul 3 0 20 0