Prithvi Shaw scored hot an attractive half-century as Delhi Capitals defeated Chennai Super Kings by 44 runs in their Indian Premier League encounter in Dubai on Friday.
After edging-out Kings XI Punjab in a Super Over in their opening game, the Capitals put in a dominating performance to get past the three-time IPL champions.
For Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men, it was the second loss in a row. They started their campaign by defeating defending champions Mumbai Indians, but have since then suffered defeats to Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals.
Set a target of 176 on Friday, Chennai could manage just 131/7 in their 20 overs. Faf du Plessis top-scored with yet again with 43 off 35 but the men in yellow were never really in the chase.
Dhoni, having faced criticism for batting too low down the order in the first two games, walked out to the crease at No 6. But there was simply too much to do at that point and he ended up getting dismissed for 15 off 12.
For Delhi, South African pacer Kagiso Rabada returned with impressive figures of 3/26, while Anrich Nortje took 2/21.
Shaw fires
Earlier, young Shaw struck a fluent half-century and shared a a 94-run opening stand with Shikhar Dhawan to guide Delhi Capitals to 175/3 against Chennai Super Kings.
Shaw made 64 off 43 balls in the company of Dhawan (35 off 27 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) to provide a superb start to DC’s innings after being put into bat.
The duo started slowly, scoring just 36 runs of the first six overs of powerplay before opening up to stitch 94 runs for the opening wicket in 10.4 overs.
Shaw got into his stride, hitting two consecutive boundaries off Deepak Chahar. The Mumbai youngster didn’t appear to rush things and played some attractive shots.
Once CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni introduced the spin duo of Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja in the seventh over, both Shaw and Dhawan went on the offensive.
Chawla, who was taken apart by Sanju Samson in their previous game against Rajasthan Royals, came in for some rough treatment as did Jadeja who went wicketless in his four overs (0/44).
Dhawan after playing second fiddle for a while, joined the party and hit a couple of attractive boundaries and slogged Jadeja’s first ball for a six over mid-wicket.
The DC openers hammered 58 in the next 4.4 overs after the slow start.
Chawla broke the dangerous-looking partnership by removing both Dhawan and Shaw in consecutive overs.
Rishabh Pant (37 not out, 25 balls) and captain Shreyas Iyer (26, 22 balls) pushed the scoreboard along before the latter was caught by a diving Dhoni off Sam Curran as CSK managed to pull things back.
(With inputs from PTI)
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