IPL24: Pant powers Delhi to a confidence boosting win over favourites CSK

 

After a subdued afternoon game it was widey expected that CSK will beat a till date  under performing Delhi Capitals at Vizag and take home two points . However Delhi Capitals performed more than expectations to throw a very stiff challenge to Chennai Super Kings and finally beat them for their first 2 points this season after a poor start . What's more - skipper Rishabh Pant came out with a stellar batting performance to turn back the clock and  delight the fans .

Winning the toss and batting first Delhi were off to a cracking start as Prithvi Shaw is back in the XI to open with Warner . While Warner was off the blocks in a flash with his scorching drives , cuts & flicks , Shaw took time to settle and then unleashed his backfoot cuts and drives as the score moved at rapid pace during the powerplay to cross 60 . The openers batted half of the innings to put on a breathtaking stand of 93 before Warner (52 off 35 balls ) was brilliantly caught at short third by Pathirana off Mustafizur.  

Shaw (43) followed soon , caught behind off Jadeja and it looked as if CSK will start to boss the match but Marsh and Pant started to build a promising stand that was cut short but a brilliant Pathirana over .

Marsh (18) was looking dangerous having just hit a pulled six off Pathirana but the young bowler uprooted his stumps with a searing 150 kph yorker and followed that up with a 149 kph yorker to uproot the stumps of Stubbs (0) as CSK took control.

However Pant soon started to find his bearings and unleashed an array of fine shots including a typical one handed Pant six . However after reaching an outstanding 51 in 32 balls and looking potentially more dangerous,  Pant was caught in the deep by Gaikwad off Pathirana .

Axar Patel (7 no) and Abhishek Porel (9 no) didnt quite finish strongly and hence Delhi reached 191/5  probably 15 run less than they would have envisaged.  Pathirana was the most successful bowler for CSK with 3 wickets . 

In reply Delhi Capitals bowling and Khaleel Ahmed hit back with vengeance with some outstanding bowling in the powerplay dusmissing Gaikwad (1) caught behind  and Ravindra (0) caught off a skier to leave CSK at a precarious 7/2 . Khaleel had a brilliant first spell of 3-0-9-2 . 

Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell rescued CSK with a productive 68 run stand but Mitchell's (34) dismissal caught and bowled by Axar put huge pressure back on CSK . Rahane (45) after a fine knock departed to the bowling of Mukesh Kumar who was brought late in the attack . Mukesh soon had Samir Rizvi caught next ball . Jadeja and Shivam Dube (18) struggled to force the pace as Delhi bowling lifted themselves in the absence of Kuldeep . 

With the match seemingly out of CSK's grip Dube was dismissed by Mukesh but Dhoni stepped in to bat for the first time in this season and showed glimpse of his vintage strokeplay of early years by hitting some blistering shots to put some late pressure on the Delhi bowling . Dhoni hit two breathtaking 6s , one over long off and other a one handed swat through midwicket much to the huge roar of the crowd . However it was too little too late as Jadeja (21 of 17 balls ) with his pedestrian batting had already ensured CSK's loss and so Dhoni 's blistering 37 off 16 balls only added to some entertainment as CSK finished at 171/6 to lose by 20 runs with Khaleel Ahmed man of the match . 

For Delhi Khaleel with 2 and Mukesh with 3 wickets were the most successful bowlers . Delhi Capitals will feel buoyant after this win over a formidable CSK and this win with a few more positives would get their season going from here.