Delhi Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan plays a shot as CSK skipper MS Dhoni looks on in Sharjah on Saturday.
Delhi Capitals have cantered to another huge victory in IPL 2020 on Saturday when Shikhar Dhawan’s blazing knock of 101 runs of 58 balls ensured that the capital outfit chased down a challenging 180 total by six wickets at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The victory powered DC back to the top of the table with 14 points in nine games.
His whirlwind of an innings came after Shane Watson (58) at the top followed by Ambati Rayudu (45 not out) and Ravindra Jadeja (33 not out) down the order powered CSK to 179/4 while taking a good measure of the DC bowlers.
Chasing 180, Prithvi Shaw disappointed again with another nought to Deepak Chahar, who caught and bowled him with no runs on the board. Chahar picked another in the fifth over – in Ajinkya Rahane (8 off 10) — to leave Delhi in all sorts of problems at 26/2.
However, having someone up top in Shikhar Dhawan meant the scoreboard kept on ticking at a pace with the southpaw smashing CSK bowlers at will. In a crucial second-wicket stand with skipper Shreyas Iyer, Dhawan reached his half-century in just 29 balls while smashing eight fours.
The left-handed opener further upped the ante 11th over onwards, taking Sam Curran for 12 runs in the over. The 44-ball 68 stand came to an end after Iyer (23 off 23) lost out his wicket to Dwayne Bravo in an attempt to clear the long-on boundary only to find Faf du Plessis.
This brought no respite to CSK with Marcus Stoinis taking on an aggressive stance from the word go, subsequently shouldering the burden of scoring with Dhawan. The duo complimented each other in a quickfire 24-ball 43 run partnership before Stoinis (24 off 14) fell to Shardul Thakur in the 16th over; giving CSK some hopes of a comeback.
However, it was Axar Patel who finished off the game with three sixes in the final over while MSD's plan to give final over to Ravindra Jadeja backfired.
Earlier in the first innings, CSK were handed an early setback when they lost opener Sam Curran for a duck off the third ball of the match but Shane Watson (36) and Faf du Plessis (58) scored 87 runs for the second wicket.
DC, however, closed in between the 10th and 15th over, dismissing both Watson and du Plessis before CSK captain MS Dhoni (3) fell to Anrich Nortje.
Jadeja and Rayudu swung the momentum CSK's way with their fifth-wicket stand and DC thus need to make 180 runs to win the match and keep up with the top-ranked Mumbai Indians.
