Shikhar Dhawan scored his first ton and Axar Patel beat three sixes in the final when Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated Chennai Match Kings (CSK) by five goals in Match 34 of the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in Sharjah on Saturday.
DC v CSK | IPL 2020 Match 34 Highlights
It took DC 180 runs to win and lost Prithvi Shaw’s wicket in the first run after Deepak Chahar completed a layoff with caught bowling. The right arm pacemaker scalped another wicket in power play after Sam Curran grabbed a sharp hook at the backward point to get Ajinkya Rahane out.
Dhawan was joined by Shreyas Iyer in the fifth over and the pair scored 12 in the power play final, with Iyer hitting a six and Dhawan hitting a four to bring DC to 42/2.
The left-handed player was given a break in the next game after being dropped by Chahar in the middle of the wicket. Dhawan then hit two fours – one streaked that managed to beat diver Shane Watson and another with a strong punch – to get DC past fifty.
Dhawan took aim at Karn Sharma in the ninth round, prevailing against two fours and surpassing his third value of over fifty in the 2020 IPL before receiving a second reprieve within a few overs.
The Dhawan show continued when he hit two manners on the 11th to go from 34 balls to 61 when DC hit 88/2.
Subsequently, CSK managed to break the 68-year partnership between Dhawan and Iyer when Dwayne Bravo fired the DC skipper for 21.
DC crossed the 100-run mark on the 13th after Marcus Stoinis hit a six and a four in front of Karn Sharma. Meanwhile, Dhawan edged closer to 80 and hit two fours in the next two overs.
CSK had another chance to see Dhawan’s back on the 16th but Ambati Rayudu failed to throw the ball off Shardul Thakur’s bowling. However, CSK managed to get his fourth wicket when Rayudu took the chance to get Stoinis out.
Since DC needed 41 of 24 balls, Dhawan followed Curran, creaming the pacemaker for the left arm for a six and a four, and went into the 1990s. DC scored 9 out of the 18th as Dhawan overtook his previous best IPL score of 97.
Dhawan brought up his first ton in the penultimate game, but Curran threw an excellent bowling, conceding only 4 runs and scalping a wicket from Alex Carey.
It took DC 17 from the final to finish the game and CSK picked Jadeja to finish that. Jadeja started the process with a wide one and took a run on the first legal delivery of the over.
With 15 balls out of five, Axar had no choice but to get big, and he did. He swept the second ball of the over for a six and then followed it with another maximum over long-off. Axar then ran two on the fourth ball of the over and pounded another six with just one of the last two balls to bring DC home.
Earlier, after picking a bat, CSK lost their first wicket early on after Sam Curran came off for zero in the first over bowling Tushar Deshpande. The left-hander pushed one towards the third man, where Anrich Nortje made a good catch.
With Kagiso Rabada bowling as a virgin, DC kept things tight and only took two runs from the first two overs.
Shane Watson, who came to Faf du Plessis in the middle after Curran’s fall, hit two foursome in the third game. du Plessis joined the party in the fifth game when he faced Anrich Nortje and hit the runabout for two fours and a six.
In the sixth game there was a collision course between du Plessis and Rabada after the two collided. Fortunately, du Plessis was up and ready to beat, and CSK switched to 39 after the power play ended.
The duo du Plessis-Watson completed the ninetieth stand in the ninth round and scored in the next three fours when CSK went over 70 in the middle of the game. du Plessis added 13 more runs to his record on the next run as he hit a six and a four ahead of Deshpande to get closer to his half-century.
While du Plessis overtook his fifteenth in the 12th, CSK also lost Watson in the same over for 36 after Nortje disrupted the wood to give DC their second wicket. du Plessis got a life in the near future after Dhawan could not hold onto a catch in the deep. However, a few overs later, Dhawan made up for that drop when he made a dive when Rabada picked up his 50th IPL wicket and ended du Plessis’ stint in the middle.
While Ambati Rayudu quickly hit, going from 18 balls to 34, DC chose their fourth wicket when Nortje dismissed MS Dhoni.
CSK was over 134/4 after the end of the 17th and took some big hits to end the innings on a high. Ravindra Jadeja did just that. The left-hander hit up to four sixes in the last three overs while Rayudu hit another while CSK scored 45 runs in the last three overs.
While Jadeja remained unbeaten with 33 of 13 balls, Rayudu scored 45 of 25 deliveries to bring CSK to 179/4.