IMAGES from the IPL match played between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday.
Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Deepak Chahar brought their 'A' game to the fore as Chennai Super Kings cantered to a 77-run crushing victory over Delhi Capitals to seal an IPL play-off berth in New Delhi on Saturday.
Playing a must-win game, Conway (87 off 52) and Gaikwad (79 off 50) smashed brilliant half-centuries to help Chennai Super Kings post a challenging 223/3 after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to bat.
Skipper David Warner, DC's best batter this season, waged a lone battle, scoring 86 off 58 deliveries. But in the end the home team could manage only 146/9 in 20 overs after Chahar dealt a killer blow removing a couple of top-order batters within Powerplay overs.
It was another disappointing performance from DC batters as save Warner, none of the others could cross individual score of 15. The profligate Indian core of likes of Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Lalit Patel and Aman Hakim Khan continued to embarrass and never looked like belonging to this level.
Even the crowd was supporting the visitors as it continued to chant 'Dhoni Dhoni' through out the game and even cheered when Delhi lost wickets.
Chahar (3/22) was the standout bowler for the visitors while Maheesh Theekshana (2/23) picked up two wickets in the last over
With the win, CSK moved up to 17 points and become the second team to move to the qualifiers.
With a net run rate of 0.652 CSK are likely to finish in the top two as only Lucknow Super Giants, who play Kolkata Knight Riders in the second match of the day, can finish on 17 points but need a big win to catch up to shoot up their NRR of 0.304.
Conway and Gaikwad came all guns blazing, hitting boundaries and sixes at will at the tacky Kotla pitch. The two put on 141 runs for the opening stand and smashed a total of 14 fours and 10 sixes.
Delhi's 2023 IPL campaign ended how it began -- with a defeat.
Their match performance was representative of their dismal season -- underwhelming bowling, losing wickets in clumps and an overseas batter doing the heavy lifting with the bat.
While Warner, an IPL stalwart notched his sixth fifty of the season, other DC batters cut a sorry figure.
Shaw's (5) nightmare of a season ended with another disappointing show. He was caught off the bowling of his Mumbai teammate Tushar Deshpande by a flying Ambati Rayudu, who timed his dive to perfection at mid-off.
After being hit for a maximum and a four by Warner, Chahar came back with a bang. The pacer dealt twin blow, getting rid of big-hitters Phil Salt (3) and Rilee Rossouw (0) off successive deliveries.
Young Dhull (13) kept Warner company in the middle for a bit as the skipper hit the big shots but the partnerships didn't last long.
The Australian southpaw attacked Ravindra Jadeja, hitting the spinner for two sixes and as many fours in two overs, which yielded 37 runs. But the skipper kept on losing partners at the other end which made it difficult to chase the 200-plus score
Earlier, Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed brilliant half-centuries to help Chennai Super Kings post a huge total.
Opting to bat, the pair of Conway and Gaikwad came out all guns blazing, hitting boundaries and sixes at will at the tacky Kotla pitch.
The Delhi bowlers were punished for straying from their lengths.
The onslaught began in the second over when CSK collected 13 runs off Lalit Yadav with Conway hitting a cracking six.
Conway and Gaikwad took CSK to 52 for no loss in the powerplay.
With field restrictions lifted, DC managed to dry out the boundaries before Gaikwad hit Axar Patel for back-to-back sixes over mid-wicket and got to his third fifty of the season.
While Gaikwad assumed the role of the aggressor, Conway complemented his fellow opener well as he clipped, pulled and cut en-route his half-century.
Gaikwad then targeted Kuldeep Yadav, hammering a hat-trick of sixes. The opener first whipped one over long off and then sent the ball over wide long on.
Gaikwad then hoisted the ball over Kuldeep's head for his final six of the innings as CSK raced to 117 in the 12 overs. He didn't spare Anrich Nortje either, slamming the South African for a maximum in the next over.
Chetan Sakariya, who was Delhi's best bowler, gave the hosts their first breakthrough as Gaikwad top-edged one to Rillee Rossouw.
With Gaikwad gone, Shivam Dube (22 off 9) continued his sensational run as he muscled the ball for two sixes of Khaleel before the pacer extracted his revenge by having him caught at long on, much to the delight of the fans skipper MS Dhoni, who walked in at number 4.
A couple of balls later, Nortje bowled a slower delivery to get rid of Conway but new man in Jadeja hit a four and six to bring up CSK's 200.
The all-rounder blazed away to an unbeaten 20 of seven balls.
But all eyes were on Dhoni (5) who faced just four balls. However, the CSK skipper was on strike for the last ball which had to be bowled a couple of times as Sakariya bowled a no ball and a wide.
