New Delhi: Dwayne Smith cracked a blistering 79 as a dominant Chennai Super Kings steamrolled Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets for their sixth straight win in the Indian Premier League, here on Monday.
Chasing a competitive 179-run target, CSK overhauled the runs required with two balls to spare as the West Indies batsman led the chase with his 51-ball knock that was embellished with eight sixes and four hits to the fence.
Such was Smith’s domination that he plundered boundaries at will and spared no DD bowler during his entertaining knock.
He departed in the 19th over when his side needed 11 runs off eight balls and skipper MS Dhoni ensured that there was no twist in the tale, keeping his reputation as a fantastic finisher intact.
Dhoni hit the lacklustre Jaydev Unadkat for a six off the second ball and followed it up with a two and a four through extra cover to yet again score the winning runs for his side.
Brendon McCullum (32) and Suresh Raina (47 not out) also contributed to CSK’s win, supporting the rampaging West Indian well.
A light shower made it a pleasant evening for the fans but for the Daredevils it was a gloomy affair as it became difficult to grip the wet ball.
With this victory, CSK have strengthened their position at the top while Delhi will now find it extremely difficult to go beyond the first stage of the tournament.
It was one of the better pitches seen at Kotla, making it possible to have a good contest between bat and ball.
Initially the wicket helped the pacers while stroke-making gradually became easier.
Despite losing charismatic skipper Kevin Pietersen for a golden duck, the Daredevils put up a competitive 178 for five, thanks to a collective batting effort led by Dinesh Karthik.
Karthik smashed his way to a 51-run knock and combined well with Murali Vijay (35) for a splendid 71-run partnership for the third wicket after a shaky start.
JP Duminy (28) and Kedar Jadhav (29) provided superb finishing touches with their fiery cameos as DD put up their best total of the season after being invited to bat.
With arguably the strongest opening pair at their disposal, CSK expectedly made a stupendous start by rattling up an 82-run stand in 11.2 overs.
Smith, continuing with his rich form, blasted three sixes off Unadkat while McCullum also found boundaries, though his was not the usual McCullum innings.
Smith raised his team’s 100 with a flat six off Mohammed Shami in the 13th over and his own half-century with a four and a six off Shukla in the next.
Of all the bowlers used by Pietersen only Wayne Parnell and Laxmi Ratan Shukla made any impact intially.
The CSK strategy was clear. They were finding at least one boundary in each over and rotated the strike comfortably, keeping the asking rate under check. (PTI)
Brief scores:
DD: 178/5, 20 overs (D Karthik 51, M Vijay 35; R Jadeja 1-23)
CSK: 181/2, 19.4 overs (D Smith 79, S Raina 47*; W Parnell 1-25)
