The 34th match of the Indian Premier League between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings turned out to be a thriller. This game had just about everything. It kept the fans from both sides on the edge of their seats. Finally, Delhi Capitals ended up winning the game in a nail-biting finish.
MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first on a surface that was expected to slow down as the game progressed. After losing Sam Curran early, Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis constructed a partnership of 87 runs. After them, Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja provided the much-needed momentum and took the team to a competitive 179/4 at the end of 20 overs.
Dhawan’s maiden century kept DC in the hunt
Delhi Capitals lost a couple of wickets inside 5 overs. Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane couldn’t contribute much to the score. However, Shikhar Dhawan was batting at another level at the other end. He found the support of the skipper, Shreyas Iyer, first and then, Marcus Stoinis that took them close to the target.
After 18 overs, DC needed 21 runs from 12 balls and looked comfortable to get over the line. Sam Curran turned up to bowl the penultimate over. The pacer dismissed Alex Carey and conceded just 4 runs from the 19th over. CSK had found their way back into the game courtesy of that over.
The equation read 17 from the last over with Dhawan and Axar Patel at the crease with the former already having crossed the three-figure mark. Amongst the available options for the last over, MS Dhoni had Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Karn Sharma as per the scoreboard.
Dwayne Bravo would have been an obvious choice as his skills to bowling at the death are amongst the best. But surprisingly, Ravindra Jadeja had the ball in his hand with 17 in the bag. With two left-handed batsmen at the crease, it didn’t seem like a good choice. Jadeja started with a wide ball and then gave away just a single to Dhawan.
Axar was on the strike for the next ball. Axar is a strong hitter down the ground. He showcased just that by smacking the next two balls out of the park. The next ball went for two runs which left only one run to get from two balls. Axar didn’t waste any time in looking for a single and slammed a huge six over long-on to seal the game for his team with one ball to spare.
Here’s the reason why Dwayne Bravo didn’t bowl the last over
The commentators, as well as the fans, were surprised with Dhoni’s decision to bring in Jadeja for the last over as Bravo seemed to be an obvious choice. But there was a reason why Dwayne Bravo didn’t turn up to bowl the last over. After the game, MS Dhoni was being interviewed and the question did come up.
CSK’s captain mentioned that Bravo wasn’t there on the ground at that time as he was not fit. He had to leave the field earlier in the innings and could not come back. Dhoni had a couple of options in Jadeja and Karn at that stage and he went for the former.
The move didn’t work out well and CSK lost their 6th game of the season. With that, they just have 3 wins from 9 games now. They would need to win almost all of the remaining 5 games to stand a chance of qualifying for the playoffs. It could well be the first season in which CSK participated and couldn’t finish in the top 4.
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