Delhi Capitals have broken the rut and have crossed the finishing line to achieve their first win of the tournament as Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar stood up with the ball while Rishabh Pant and David Warner were the stars of the match.
MS Dhoni entertained the crowd and the sort of neutral spectators in Visakhapatnam got their money's worth as even though he didn't take CSK to a win, his 37* off 16 and Delhi's win was may be what the fans wanted.
Mukesh Kumar has taken the game by the scruff of its neck as he has sent back the dangerous Shivam Dube to leave CSK six down, which brings MS Dhoni in the middle with the bat.
Mukesh Kumar has taken two wickets in two balls and has left Chennai Super Kings shocked. Mukesh first dismissed Ajinkya Rahane with a slower ball before sending back Sameer Rizvi for a duck.
It was a much-needed wicket for the Delhi side and Axar Patel provided it as the partnership between Daryl Mitchell and Ajinkya Rahane was starting to get dangerous.
Daryl Mitchell and Ajinkya Rahane after getting their eyes in and playing a few balls extra to rescue CSK's innings after losing both the openers cheaply without much on the board.
Another big wicket from Khaleel Ahmed as he put an end to Rachin Ravindra's struggles.
Rachin scored 2 off 12 balls. Daryl Mitchell joins Ajinkya Rahane in the middle.
CSK - 7/2 in 3 overs.
Khaleel Ahmed strikes in the first over to dismiss CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad on a thick edge with Rishabh claiming an easy catch behind,.
Chennai Super Kings - 3/1 in 1 over. Ajinkya Rahane joins Rachin Ravindra in the middle.
Rishabh Pant was dismissed by Matheesha Pathirana in the 19th over and Abishek Porel and Axar Patel despite a wide and a no-ball in the final over couldn't make use of it as even though they got 12 runs off the last over, they could have gotten a few more.
The flashbacks of vintage Rishabh Pant were on show again as he turned the clock back to notch up his first fifty of the season as he took Delhi's score beyond 180.
Matheesha Pathirana has broken the back of Delhi's batting by dismissing both Mitchell Marsh and Tristan Stubbs with yorkers of 150 km/hr and 149 km/hr deliveries in the same over. Just when it seemed that Delhi had come back after losing both openers in quick succession, Pathirana has stung them like a bee.
Ravindra Jadeja after being hit for a six, got his man Prithvi Shaw as the Mumbai batter on comeback and played a good hand of 43 for the Delhi Capitals. The Capitals have now lost two wickets in quick succession.
Matheesha Pathirana has probably taken the catch of the tournament as MS Dhoni, David Warner and many others were in disbelief as the Sri Lankan pacer flung himself in the air at short third man and dived full-length to take a screamer as Delhi have lost their first wicket.
David Warner now has the joint-highest fifty-plus scores in T20 cricket (110) as he reached his half-century off just 32 balls as he helped Delhi Capitals get off to a flier along with Prithvi Shaw.
A no-ball, a couple of loose ones and some quality hitting from David Warner and Prithvi Shaw meant the Capitals scored 51 runs in the last three overs of the powerplay with both of them latching on to freebies.
Deepak Chahar got an early swing while both the Delhi Capitals batters got their eyes in as the first three overs, it was a steady start from both DC and CSK.
The pitch is hard with good covering of grass and that may be the reason that the Capitals decided to bat first. There won't be much help for the spinners and that's why the home team has gone with one specialist spinner with Kuldeep Yadav unavailable. However, they still might get the leggie Praveen Dubey as impact player and if Delhi get a good score on the board, it will be interesting to see how CSK go about their chase.
Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni(w), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman
Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed
Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant elected to bat first on a fresh track in Visakhapatnam saying that the surface looked good and will hope to put a huge score on the board.
Despite the change in hands, the Chennai Super Kings look like a champion outfit having smashed Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans rather comfortably in the first two games at home. While Vizag will have its own challenges, the lack of confidence in the Delhi line-up will be a big aspect that CSK would want to latch on to.
Delhi Capitals suffered a loss in both of their games so far as their batters and bowlers have failed collectively. Against Punjab, the batting line-up faltered before Abishek Porel helped them to get to 173, which wasn't enough eventually. Against Rajasthan, despite having them at 58/3 in 10 overs, the Men in Pink ended up with 185, which was too much. The batting showed a bit of spark of chasing the total down, but eventually it wasn't to be.
Delhi Capitals aim for their first win while the Chennai Super Kings look to continue their winning momentum in Match No. 13 of the 2024 edition of the IPL. Welcome to our live coverage of the crucial clash from Visakhapatnam.
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