DC vs CSK: Chennai enter play-offs with 77-run win over Delhi Capitals

Devon Conway Ruturaj Gaikwad and Deepak Chahar brought their A game to the fore as Chennai Super Kings cantered to a 77run crushing victory over Delhi Capitals to seal an IPL playoff berth here on SaturdayPlaying a mustwin game Conway 87 off 52 and Gaikwad 79 off 50 smashed brilliant halfcenturies to help Chennai Super Kings post a challenging 2233 after captain MS Dhoni opted to batSkipper David Warner DCs best batter this season waged a lone battle scoring 86 off 58 deliveries But in the end the home team could manage only 1469 in 20 overs after Chahar dealt a killer blow removing a couple of toporder batters within Powerplay oversIt was another shameful 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 levelEven the crowd was supporting the visitors as it continued to chant Dhoni Dhoni through out the game and even cheered when Delhi lost wicketsChahar 322 was the standout bowler for the visitors while Maheesh Theekshana 223 picked up two wickets in the last overWith the win CSK moved up to 17 points and become the second team to move to the qualifiersWith a net run rate of 0652 CSK are likely to finish in the top two as only Lucknow Super Giants who play Kolkata Knight Riders later in the evening can finish on 17 points and they have a NRR of 0304Conway 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 sixesDelhis 2023 IPL campaign ended how it began with a defeatTheir match performance was representative of their dismal season underwhelming bowling losing wickets in clumps and an overseas batter doing the heavy lifting with the batWhile Warner an IPL stalwart notched his sixth fifty of the season other DC batters cut a sorry figureShaws 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 offAfter being hit for a maximum and a four by Warner Chahar came back with a bang The pacer dealt twin blow getting rid of bighitters Phil Salt 3 and Rilee Rossouw 0 off successive deliveriesYoung Dhull 13 kept Warner company in the middle for a bit as the skipper hit the big shots but the partnerships didnt last longThe 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 scoreEarlier Conway and Gaikwad began the onslaught in the second over when CSK collected 13 runs off Lalit Yadav with Conway hitting a cracking sixThe Delhi bowlers were punished for straying from their lengthsWith field restrictions lifted DC managed to dry out the boundaries before Gaikwad hit Axar Patel for backtoback sixes over midwicket and got to his third fifty of the seasonWhile Gaikwad assumed the role of the aggressor Conway complemented his fellow opener well as he clipped pulled and cut enroute his halfcenturyGaikwad then targeted Kuldeep Yadav hammering a hattrick of sixes The opener first whipped one over long off and then sent the ball over wide long onBut all eyes were on Dhoni 5 not out 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 wideAlso Read Sunil Gavaskar opens up on taking Dhonis autograph calls it an emotional momentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever