IPL: CSK survives Pant scare to clinch 13-run victory

After CSK made 211 for four, Rishabh Pant made a match of it with a 45-ball 79, but Delhi fell short by 13 runs in the end.

Dhoni scored his third half-century of the season in Pune on Monday.

Chennai Super Kings turned the clock back in scripting its textbook style of match play by posting a huge total and applying the squeeze with the help of scoreboard pressure to edge Delhi Daredevils by 13 runs.

Scoreboard and ball-by-ball details

 

Put into bat, CSK made 211 for four after Shane Watson's quickfire 78 of 40 balls set it up for skipper M.S. Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu to flourish at the end.

In reply, Rishabh Pant made a match of it with a 45-ball 79 after Delhi was reduced to 74 for four. Pant put on an 88-run stand for the fifth wicket with Vijay Shankar, who played a very good supporting role with an unbeaten 54.

Pant started his innings with a six and four off Shane Watson to get his innings going but was involved in an awful mix up with skipper Shreyas Iyer that accounted for the latter.

The Delhi boy kept his side in the hunt as he played to his strengths going across and swatting over the leg side at every given opportunity. After a few quiet overs, he picked a six and four off Ravindra Jadeja through the leg side to restart his innings.

 

The big push came when Pant went after youngster K.M. Asif, slamming him for two boundaries and six in the 16th over as he continued his onslaught.

With 55 required off the last three, Lungi Ngidi — playing his first game — bowled a brilliant over dismissing Pant while giving only six runs, which sealed the match in CSK’s favour.

Earlier, CSK rung in four changes with Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar — who was injured —  and Shardul Thakur making way for Faf du Plessis, Karn Sharma, Asif and Ngidi.

Rishabh Pant threatened to take the match away from Chennai Super Kings.

  Watson was lucky to survive a leg-before appeal off the first ball of the match from Trent Boult with the third umpire adjudging that the Australian got an inside edge, though it was inconclusive.

He sent the next ball off his pads for a boundary and from there on never gave a chance to the Delhi bowlers.

Liam Plunkett experienced Watson’s wrath with the Australian slamming four sixes in his two-over spell as CSK raced from 25 for no loss after four to 71 after seven overs. Watson got another two sixes off leg-spinner Rahul Tewatia to get to his fifty.

From 102 for one, CSK slumped to 131 for three at the end of 14 overs but Dhoni launched into the Delhi bowlers slamming an unbeaten 51 off just 22 balls with five sixes.

Coming in at four, Ambati Rayudu too joined the party, slamming 41 with the duo adding 79 for the fourth wicket off just 36 balls that set the match for the two-time champion.