Smith’s 79 helps Chennai best Daredevils by eight wickets, DD now have lost five
Continuing to cash in on his rich of form, Dwayne Smith anchored the innings while Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina batted around him to guide Chennai Super Kings to their sixth win of the season with an eight-wicket victory over Delhi Daredevils here on Monday night at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium.
Contrastingly, the Daredevils plunged to their fifth loss in seven matches Indian Premier league matches.
Smith’s calculated assault of 79 runs of 51 balls, coupled with a mediocre planning by the hosts meant that the visitors remain on top while Delhi remain a place above bottom-placed Mumbai Indians on the league table.
The West Indian shared an 82-run opening partnership with McCullum and later an 86-run partnership with Raina which helped them to an eight wicket victory. While doing his bit in the run-chase of 179, Smith was calm in the beginning and his onslaught started in the fourth over bowled by Jaidev Unadkat, who went for three consecutive sixes.
Though McCullum played a slow innings of 32 in 35 balls, the aggression of his partner kept the visitors in front. When the Kiwi batsman was dismissed, Raina came to the party too, playing smart cricket.
Delhi bowlers paid the price of bowling too short and too full to Smith, who came up with ferocious pulls and heaves on the leg side. His innings included eight hits over the fence and four boundaries. After the fall of Smith, MS Dhoni hit a six of Unadkat in the final over where CSK required 11 and remained not out with Raina as the 2010 and 2011 champions finished the chase.
Earlier, Dinesh Karthik’s resolute fifty and a late charge by Jean-Paul Duminy and Kedar Jadhav took Delhi to a highly competitive total of 178/5. Coming at the fall of two quick wickets of Quinton de Kock, who had provided a good start with an individual score of 24 in 16 balls and skipper Kevin Pietersen who misread the line of a Mohit Sharma delivery, Karthik forged a 71-run partnership with opener Murali Vijay (35).
Opener Quinton played fearlessly and his brief innings saw two pull shots of Ishwar Pandey for two sixes - first one over deep square leg and the other one through mid-wicket. But, to his dismay, soon the South African misjudged a third run and ran himself out. Pietersen followed him soon to the dug-out.
At this critical juncture, Karthik looked positive from the start and a classic backfoot punch through cover of a Pandey delivery set him up perfectly. He played proper cricket shots as the innings progressed. Delhi’s vice-captain’s knock also included a six of Jadeja towards mid-wicket.
He punished the loose balls for the maximum result and later showed some audacity and creativity when he opened his stumps and scooped for maximum, a CSK’s Australian recruit Ben Hilfenhaus delivery.
A crisp strike through covers in the same over brought his fifty and by the time he was caught by Mohit near the square leg umpire, he had scored a 36-ball 51 and had propelled his team to 108/3 in 13 overs.
After his wicket, Vijay and laxmi Ratan Shukla also perished, leaving Duminy and Jadhav to do the needful in the final five overs. South African Duminy scored unbeaten 28 in 17 balls while Jadhav ended with a cameo of 18-ball 29.
For Chennai, spinners Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were economical and picked a wicket each.
Brief Scores
Delhi Daredevils: 178/5 (Dinesh Karthik 51, Murali Vijay 35, Ravindra Jadeja 1/23) lost to Chennai Super Kings: 181/2 in 19.4 overs (Dwayne Smith 79, Suresh Raina 47 no, Brendon McCullum 32). CSK beat DD by 8 wickets.