Chennai Super Kings succumbed to Shikhar Dhawan’s brilliant century followed by Axar Patel’s last over blitz to go down at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. With this loss, MS Dhoni & Co stand in line to be the first team to bow out of IPL 2020.
Chasing a mammoth total, Delhi Capitals got off to a poor start losing Prithvi Shaw in the first over. But Shikhar Dhawan held one end tight to take the game deep. Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer made useful contributions but it was Dhawan who led the charge with useful run whenever needed.
Chennai on verge of bowing out of IPL
The veteran opener brought his first IPL century in the process and Axar Patel’s last over cameo guided Delhi Capitals home from a spot where it looked almost impossible. MS Dhoni looked complete distraught as they stand in line to bow out of IPL 2020.
Batting first, Chennai Super Kings opened with Sam Curran again but that didn’t work as the all-rounder fell for a 3-ball duck. Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis batted judiciously and set the platform for the middle-and-lower-order to go berserk. Ambati Rayudu did struggle for a while when he was charging down the pitch against all the deliveries.
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Dhawan’s wicket was important – MS Dhoni
But, once he got his eye in, he played a gem of an innings. Delhi Capitals would have been the happier side when MS Dhoni was scalped for 3 in the 17th over, but Ravindra Jadeja upset their plans with yet another cameo in this IPL. His 13-ball 33 propelled Chennai to 179 runs which was not enough to seal the game.
Speaking at the end of the game, MS Dhoni revealed why he went with Ravindra Jadeja in the 20th over. With Dwyane Bravo hurt, Dhoni was left with Jadeja and Karn Sharma, so he had to go with the experience.
“Bravo was not fit, he went out and was really not able to come back. That was the reason we had to bowl (Jadeja). The option was between Karn and Jaddu so I went ahead with Jaddu. Maybe not enough,” MS Dhoni added.
MS Dhoni further added that Shikhar Dhawan, who scored a brilliant century made the difference. Chennai dropped three catches of Dhawan and he took the game away from them with an unbeaten match-winning knock.
Shikhar’s wicket was important, we did drop him quite a few times. He’s somebody if he is batting, he’ll keep ticking the scoreboard. He’ll keep taking his chances. If he’s there on the crease, he’ll always maintain a good strike rate. I felt his wicket was crucial,” he signed off.
