IPL 2020, Match 7- Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Capitals – Openers, spinners guide DC to 44-run victory

A disciplined and dominant display from the Delhi Capitals (DC) helped them achieve a 44-run win over the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), their second victory in as many matches. The tactic of teams opting to bowl first has evidently not been effective so far in this year’s IPL, today’s game being the latest example. Prithvi […]
 
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IPL 2020, Match 7- Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Capitals – Openers, spinners guide DC to 44-run victory

A disciplined and dominant display from the Delhi Capitals (DC) helped them achieve a 44-run win over the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), their second victory in as many matches.

The tactic of teams opting to bowl first has evidently not been effective so far in this year’s IPL, today’s game being the latest example. Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan laid the foundation for the Delhi Capitals’ middle-order with a compact 94-run opening partnership, with Shaw reaching a well-deserved half-century. Piyush Chawla, who had been carted to all parts of the ground in CSK’s previous game against the Rajasthan Royals, received similar treatment today as well, before claiming the wicket of both the openers.

Although Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant put up a 50-run stand going into the slog overs, it felt like DC could have had a lot more if they had a genuine big hitter like Marcus Stoinis in the middle towards the latter stages, and Pant playing to his full potential. Nevertheless, DC finished with 175 runs on the board, with Pant ending with a 25-ball 37.

ALSO READ: IPL 2020: CSK vs DC Game Plan 2- Can Shreyas Iyer break his CSK jinx?

DC more than made up for their compromising finish to the innings by claiming both CSK openers within the powerplay with 34 on the board. Spinners Axar Patel and Amit Mishra then had the pair of Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad in desperate search for runs, which resulted in Gaikwad being needlessly run out. CSK’s decision to not send in the likes of Sam Curran or Ravindra Jadeja at that stage proved to be costly, as the search for boundaries continued for du Plessis and new batsman Kedar Jadhav. Jadhav belatedly began to accelerate, but was soon trapped in front by Anrich Nortje. Although skipper MS Dhoni walked out with positive intent, chasing down 78 off the last 4 and a half overs was always going to be too steep, as CSK ended up crawling to 131, in the process suffering a second successive humbling defeat.

Keys to success for DC in today’s game:

The perfect opening partnership

IPL 2020, Match 7- Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Capitals – Openers, spinners guide DC to 44-run victory

Prithvi Shaw (right) and Shikhar Dhawan put on 94 for the first wicket

Delhi Capitals lost three of their top-order batsmen to terrible shots and a communication breakdown last game. None of that was on display today. The opening pair of Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan were aware of the danger that Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood possess with the new ball, so the duo played the both of them out. Shaw, who had been dismissed by Deepak Chahar four times before today, narrowly escaped a fifth dismissal in the first over itself, as he nicked off a wobbling delivery behind to Dhoni but none of CSK players, most notably the individual who gathered the ball, went up, unaware of what had happened.

IPL 2020, Match 7- Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Capitals – Openers, spinners guide DC to 44-run victory

The arrival of the CSK spinners, Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja, gave Shaw and Dhawan the license to accelerate. While Shaw, who had been taking the risks amongst the two of them so far, smashed a couple of cracking boundaries off Chawla’s first over, Dhawan took a liking to the left-arm spin of Jadeja, whose record against left-handers over the previous couple of editions of the IPL has been sub-par to say the least, taking 12 off his first over, including a slog-sweep that cleared the ropes for the first time tonight.

26 more runs came off the following two overs, as the opening duo helped Delhi record a score of 88 at the halfway mark, thereby providing their power-packed middle-order the perfect situation to play their natural game later on. While Dhoni’s persistence in bowling Chawla paid off eventually, as the leg-spinner dismissed both the openers in his two remaining overs and conceded only 9 runs, Shaw and Dhawan had done their job.

ALSO READ: IPL 2020: CSK vs DC Game Plan 1- Are CSK bowlers losing their powerplay hold?

Good start with the ball

While DC were unable to finish well with the bat, they more than made up for it with the ball in hand in the first six overs of the chase. The South African fast bowling duo of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje bowled at good pace and had Murali Vijay and Shane Watson fishing and striving for the ball to come on to the bat properly.

The intent of going for the attack straightaway was evident from DC when Shreyas Iyer introduced Axar Patel in the 2nd over. He had good reason to do so; Axar’s head-to-head record against Watson is formidably favorable towards the Anand-born spin-bowling all-rounder. Axar emerged successful against Watson yet again in his second over, having him hole out to Hetmyer at deep mid-wicket, thereby scripting a sixth occasion of dismissing the former Australian all-rounder in the IPL.

Anrich Nortje then beat a completely out-of-sorts and out-of-place Murali Vijay for pace in the next over, bowling a length delivery that skidded off the surface and having Vijay present catching practice to Rabada at mid-on. The two breakthroughs meant that although CSK were only a couple of runs behind DC after the powerplay stage, they had lost both their openers, which made a whole lot of difference, especially given that CSK were the ones chasing a target.

Spinners the major difference between both sides

Both CSK and DC used 5 bowlers each today. Both had 2 spinners out of the five. And that is where the similarities come to a halt.

The CSK spin-duo of Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja gave away a combined total of 77 runs in their 8 overs, all of them being bowled in the middle-stages. DC skipper Shreyas Iyer was much more flexible in terms of using his spinners. Introducing Axar Patel into the attack one over into the chase, Iyer bowled him twice within the powerplay.

In complete contrast to CSK’s spinners, Axar, and Amit Mishra, introduced in the 7th over, completely choked up the runs in their overs, with Mishra going for 23 in his 4, albeit wicketless, and Axar going for only 18, along with the wicket of Watson. They were also helped by the fact that the CSK camp, for the second time in two games, refrained from using their big-hitting friendly left-handed batsmen to maximum effect to reduce the required rate after a slow start to the innings.