Another matchday and another win for Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League 2020. The Delhi franchise have been relentless in their pursuit of the top spot in the 13th season of IPL and they further strengthened their position with a win over Chennai Super Kings on Saturday. It wasn’t the commanding performance from DC as they had to grind hard to eke out a five-wicket win at the Sharjah Stadium. Chasing a target of 180, the match went to the last over with DC needing 16 runs off it.
Shikhar Dhawan was batting on 101 and Axar Patel had just come to the crease. At the crucial stage, there were two choices in front of captain Dhoni – Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja. Bravo was the logical choice due to his experience in the death overs. But Dhoni in a surprising move went with Jadeja. The plan backfired as Jadeja conceded 22 runs off the last over.
Explaining his move of handing the last over to Jadeja, Dhoni told the host broadcaster Star Sports after the match, “Bravo was not fit. He went out and didn’t come back. The options were Jaddu and Karn. I went with Jaddu. Shikhar’s wicket was important but we dropped him quite a number of times. If he keeps batting, he will keep the strike rate high. Also, the wicket played better in the second half, but we can’t take the credit away from Shikhar.”
In the last two overs, Delhi Capitals needed 21 runs but Sam Curran bowled brilliantly and gave away just four runs. However, a final over cameo by Axar which saw him whacking three sixes helped Delhi Capitals chase the target with one ball to spare Dhawan had also survived a scare on 99 in the penultimate over.
The on-field umpire gave him out but he went for a review straight away and the replay confirmed that there was no edge.
Dhoni said that the wicket played better in the second innings and there was enough dew to make the pitch better.
“There wasn’t a lot of dew, but there was just enough to make the pitch better. That makes a big difference: minus 10 when you are batting, and the extra 10 for the team batting second. A positive was Sam’s last over. He needs to be convinced that he can execute outside off yorkers, that is something most of the coaching staff want the bowlers to bowl,” Dhoni said.
“If you are not comfortable doing it, you can’t really push in the game. I feel this game will give him a lot of confidence when it comes to executing outside off yorkers, I feel that will be one delivery that is slightly difficult to hit,” the wicket-keeper added.
With this win, the Shreyas Iyer led side has regained the top position in the points table with 14 points.
(with ANI inputs)
Source: IPLT20.com