Delhi Capitals had a tough task at their hands on Wednesday as they were chasing 180 on a slow pitch against Chennai Super Kings and the visitors needed a solid start to lay the perfect foundation for the chase.

However, that was not the case as Prithvi Shaw was dismissed by Deepak Chahar in the very first over and the onus was once again on skipper Shreyas Iyer to steady the innings. Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan did their job well as the duo dominated the bowlers and it looked like the Capitals were well on their way to an impressive run chase.

Harbhajan Singh, who opened the bowling with Chahar, was not going to let that happen as he castled Dhawan in the sixth over and that opened the floodgates for CSK. Rishabh Pant followed suit as he tried to hit Imran Tahir for a six but was caught by Dwayne Bravo in the deep.

In the very next over, Colin Ingram was trapped LBW by Ravindra Jadeja and Tahir accounted for the wickets of Axar Patel and Sherfane Rutherford as Capitals were out of the game after losing half the batsmen by 11th over.

Tahir (4/12) and Jadeja (3/9) tore apart the middle order, sharing seven wickets between them as Capitals were all out for just 99. Thanks to this 80-run victory, Chennai Super Kings, who now sit atop the table with 18 points, are now sure to end in top-2, ensuring that they will have two shots at making the summit clash.

Earlier, Suresh Raina struck a half century but it was MS Dhoni once again who helped Chennai Super Kings recover from a slow start to post a competitive 179/4 in 20 overs .

(With agency inputs)

First Published: May 01, 2019 23:40 IST