Dhoni, Watson muscle fighting Daredevils, CSK reclaim top spot

Shane Watson and M S Dhoni smashed brutal half-centuries to power Chennai Super Kings to 211 for four against Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

Shane Watson and M S Dhoni smashed brutal half-centuries to power Chennai Super Kings to the top of the points table with a 13-run victory over Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

Watson (78 off 40) was back to his brutal best after three low scores and shared a 102-run opening off 66 balls stand with Faf du Plessis (33) after surviving a close lbw call on the first ball of the match.

Dhoni (51* off 22) showed his devastating touch in the last five overs which produced 74 runs. It was also Dhoni's second fastest fifty in the IPL that propelled the Super Kings to amass 211 for four, batting first.

Needing more than 10 an over put scoreboard  pressure on the visitors and they wilted under pressure. Rishabh Pant (79 off 45) and Vijay Shankar (54* off 31) ensured Daredevils get closer to the target but it was not enough as they ended at 198 for five.

Pant was particularly impressive with his knock, in which he peppered the leg side boundary quite often, playing some innovative strokes to render the experiences Super Kings bowlers clueless.

Pant’s falling sweep shot, which he played twice – once off Asif and once off Bravo – attracted a fair bit of attention. (CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO)

 

Super Kings pacer Lungi Ngidi impressed on his IPL debut, ending with figures of one for 26 in four overs.  

Delhi opted to field on a good batting wicket and Super Kings pounced on the opportunity.

Watson was unstoppable after Boult almost had him trapped in front of the stumps with a pacy inswinger at the start of the match. The visiting team took the DRS but the third umpire did not have conclusive evidence to overrule the not out call of the on-field umpire.

It was also a bit surprising that the tournament's leading run scorer Ambati Rayudu (41 off 24) did not open the innings with Watson.

However, the the Watson-Du Plessis duo produced the desired result for the Super Kings who raced to 100 in just 10.2 overs.

Watson, who hit a hundred earlier in the tournament, got going by depositing Liam Plunkett for two sixes in the fifth over that eventually leaked 20 runs.

Watson hammered as many as seven sixes with most of them coming straight or over square leg. 

When the former Australian all-rounder departed, the dangerous combine of Rayudu and Dhoni got together in the 14th over.

The captain got into the act with successive sixes off Boult, one over mid-wicket and other other one from a bottom-handed jab over long on. The third one was a whip off Avesh Khan over square, almost going out of the ground. He ended up with five sixes and two fours.

Rayudu too made sure the big hits coming as he hit five fours and a six in his cameo. His fourth wicket stand of 79 with Dhoni came off just 36 balls.

The Super Kings was able to complete a third half century of the IPL-11 with a double off the final ball of the innings.

The Delhi bowlers were all over the place especially the experienced Boult and Plunkett who leaked 100 runs in seven overs.

Dhoni made as many four changes in the playing eleven, bringing in du Plessis, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi and young Kerala pacer KM Asif. Daredevils on the other hand did not make any changes after a much needed win against KKR at home.

Toss and team news

Shreyas Iyer has won the toss and opted to field first against Chennai Super Kings in Pune.

Chennai Super Kings Playing XI: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, DJ Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Karn Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi

Four changes in CSK squad. Faf du Plisis, Lungi Ngidi, KM Asif, Karn Sharma are in the playing XI.

Delhi Daredevils Playing XI: Prithvi Shaw, Colin Munro, Shreryas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Liam Plunkett, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult.

Delhi Daredevils are playing with the same team.

Preview

Their stuttering campaign back on the rails under new skipper Shreyas Iyer, a resurgent Delhi Daredevils will play Chennai Super Kings in a crucial Indian Premier League match on Monday. 

While Delhi would fight for survival, CSK would be equally keen to get back to winning ways after losing by eight wickets to Mumbai Indians in their adopted home ground on Saturday.

The Daredevils, who were struggling with Gautam Gambhir at the helm, found the elusive winning formula in their previous game when they comprehensively defeated formidable Kolkata Knight Riders at home.

Ricky Ponting-coached Delhi, now at the bottom of the table with just two wins out of seven games, however need to continue their winning spree to keep themselves in the hunt for the play-offs.

CSK, on the other hand, are on second placed on the points table but their confidence suffered a blow on Saturday against another struggling outfit in defending champions Mumbai Indians.

It would still be an uphill ask for the Daredevils to beat CSK at their adopted home - the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium but they cannot afford to lose.

Among other things, the Delhi outfit would hope that skipper Iyer continues to lead from the front as he did with a match-winning 93 against KKR.

Besides Iyer, other batsmen like opener Prithvi Shaw, Rishab Pant and all-rounders Glenn Maxwell and Colin Munro too will have to play their part to perfection.

Australian Maxwell has been getting starts but is unable to convert them into big scores.

It would interesting to see whether the Daredevils again leave out Gambhir, who is out of form and did not figure in the playing eleven against KKR, tomorrow.

Delhi's varied bowling stock too clicked in the last match and if the star-studded CSK batting line-up has to be checked, the visitors will have to bowl out of their skin.

On the other hand, returning to the IPL after serving a two-year suspension, CSK has been the team to look out for this season.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is back among runs with his traditional late flourish while in-form Ambati Rayadu, Shane Watson and Dwayne Bravo are also capable of making a mockery of the Delhi bowling attack.

The pleasing part for coach Stephen Fleming is that Suresh Raina has finally found his touch with an unbeaten 75 in a losing cause last night.

With Sam Billings and Ravindra Jadeja in the side, CSK have depth in their batting.

But CSK bowlers were hammered by Mumbai Indians and will need to regroup and come strong tomorrow.

Pacer Shardul Thakur needs to quickly get over from the mauling he received at the hands of Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma yesterday along side leg-spinner Imran Tahir.

To make matters worse for CSK, Deepak Chahar, who could not complete his third over in the game, has been ruled out for a few weeks after sustaining a hamstring injury. On the spin front, veteran Harbhajan Singh will be crucial to choke up runs in the middle overs.

Teams 

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf Du Plesis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayadu, Deepak Chahar, K M Asif, Kanish Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshtiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, David Willy.

Delhi Daredevils: Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Naman Ojha, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala.