IPL 2018, DD vs CSK: Delhi defend 162 to stun Chennai

Amit Mishra was at his vintage best as his precise bowling helped Delhi Daredevils defend 162 against Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi on Friday.

Mishra finished with 2/20 from his four overs and was ably supported by Sandeep Lamichhane (1/21) to keep the CSK batsmen at bay.

Chennai batsmen looked off colour right from the start and barring Ambati Rayudu (50), no other batsmen delivered the goods.

(HIGHLIGHTS | PHOTOS)

Watson (14 off 23), Raina (15 off 18) and Dhoni (17 off 23) failed to time the ball and that put a lot of pressure on the other end.

While the two leg-spinners cramped the CSK batsmen for room, pacer Trent Boult (2/20) and all-rounder Harshal Patel (1/23) were also impressive in DD's 34-run victory.

Earlier, Delhi Daredevils rode on late order blitzkriegs from Vijay Shankar and Harshal Patel to post a fighting healthy.

Shankar (36 not out from 28 balls; 4x2, 6x2) and Patel (36 not out from 16; 4x1, 6x4) milked 26 runs off the final over from Dwayne Bravo to forge a 65-run sixth wicket stand -- the highest of Delhi's innings -- and rescue the hosts from a troubled start.

Put in to bat, Delhi were off to a sluggish start before losing in-form opener Prithvi Shaw off a run-a-ball 17 in the fifth over with the scoreboard showing 24 runs.

Shaw, who received a reprieve a couple of balls earlier when Shardul Thakur dropped a simple catch off Ravindra Jadeja, failed to cash on it and fell to Deepak Chahar with Thakur making no mistake this time around.

Shaw's dismissal brought together the in-form duo of skipper Shreyas Iyer (19 from 22; 4x3) and Rishabh Pant (38 from 26; 4x3, 6x2) and the right-left combo forged a 54-run second wicket stand to stabilise Delhi's innings.

While Iyer played the more sedate innings, Pant looked at his aggressive best punishing veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh for two sixes and a four.

But as things started going smoothly Delhi's way, South African Lungi Ngidi jolted the hosts by packing back both Iyer and Pant in a span of four deliveries.

Back into the attack for his second over, Ngidi cleaned up Iyer with a skiddy short of length delivery before enticing Pant with a short ball, which resulted in a top edge into the safe hands of Bravo at third man.

Struggling at 81/3, Glenn Maxwell and Shankar were assigned to resurrect the innings but form continued to elude the Australian who found his leg stick walking with a straight delivery from left-arm spinner Jadeja.

Delhi immediately lost another wicket in rookie Abhishek Sharma (2), whose top edge found the safe hands of Harbhajan at mid-on.

With half the side back in the hut at 97, Patel joined Shankar to strike a few lusty blows to take the side past the 150-run mark.

Shankar started slowly before picking Bravo for some special treatment over the fence before Patel joined the party in the final over by clobbering the West Indian for three maximums.

(With inputs from IANS)