Delhi Capitals openers Shaw and Dhawan learnt from their last match and started their innings conservatively to build a platform for an attack in the later stages of their innings. They quickly accelerated once the spinners came on as Shaw showed his class with a quick-fire 50. Dhawan also overcame his slow start to dominate Chennai Super Kings spinners Chawla and Jadeja. CSK managed to pull it back with Chawla dismissing both the openers. DC batsmen Pant and Iyer showed some intent but CSK was able to restrict DC to 175.
CSK openers Watson and Vijay also started off slowly and Watson was beginning to look dangerous when he holed out to the deep fielder off of DC spinner Patel’s bowling. Then CSK was never in the game as the DC spinners Patel and Mishra strangled the batsmen from scoring quickly. CSK batsman Du Plessis did his best but it was too little too late as they were unable to keep up to the required rate. Also the DC pace attack of Rabada and Nortje was hard to score off in the “death” overs.
CSK has to do some soul searching as they have lost their second match in a row without much fight and are currently with a 1-2 win/loss record. Dhoni needs to rethink his batting order and maybe put himself up the order. Vijay, Jadhav and Gaikwad’s form is also not that great. The spinners are also not firing and needs to be addressed.
Meanwhile, DC find themselves at the top of the table with 2 wins. They came with a plan to not lose too many wickets too early and bowled with a gameplan in mind. Iyer must be feeling great about his captaincy as he seems to be handling it quite well and must get the hang of things on that front. Iyer and the DC must be hoping this winning feeling continues as they are prime contenders in the play-offs and possibly the title this season.
