Visakhapatnam: South African Faf du Plessis (50, 39b, 7×4, 1×6) and Aussie Shane Watson (50, 32b, 3×4, 4×6) hit fantastic half centuries as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) comprehensively by six wickets in the Qualifier 2 to book their IPL summit clash spot here, Friday. They will meet Mumbai Indians in the final Sunday.
Chasing 148 runs for victory, the Du Plessis-Watson duo set up the platform with an 81-run opening run partnership. However, DC pegged back with four quick wickets in Du Plessis, Watson, Suresh Raina (11) and skipper MS Dhoni (9) but it was Ambati Rayudu (20 n o) who kept his cool to take the ‘Yellow Brigade’ to their eighth final in the history of the tournament.
Earlier, CSK bowlers dished out a clinical bowling effort to restrict DC to 147/9. Dwayne Bravo (2/19), Ravindra Jadeja (2/23), Deepak Chahar (2/28) and Harbhajan Singh (2/31) shared eight wickets between them to keep DC in check after opting to bowl.
Sent into bat, DC made a shaky start with Prithvi Shaw (five) and Shikhar Dhawan (18) adding 21 runs in 2.3 overs before the former was caught plumb in front of the wicket by Chahar.
Shaw’s dismissal opened the floodgates as DC lost three wickets in quick time to slump to 75/4 in 11.3 overs. Dhawan was the next to depart, caught by MS Dhoni off Harbhajan and then Colin Munro (27) was holed at deep square-leg by Bravo off Jadeja as the South African went for a slog sweep.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer (13) tried to anchor the innings but he too fell while going for a big shot, caught by Suresh Raina off Imran Tahir (1/28) in the 12th over.
To make matters worse for DC, new man in Axar Patel () departed in the next over, hitting a short delivery of Bravo straight to Tahir at third man.
Rishabh Pant (38) and Sherfane Rutherford (10) shared 22 runs for the sixth wicket but CSK didn’t allow the Delhi outfit to get any momentum, picking up wickets at regular intervals to rattle their innings.
Rutherford became Harbhajan’s second victim, followed by Keemo Paul () who was cleaned up by Bravo’s perfect yorker in the 18th over. The onus was on hard-hitting Pant to take DC to a challenging total but he too failed to cope up with the pressure, caught by Bravo at long-on off Chahar.
Towards the end, Amit Mishra (6 n o) and Ishant Sharma (10 n o) used their long handles to great effect and struck some lusty blows to take the Delhi side close to the 150-run mark.
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 147/9 (Rishabh Pant 38; Dwayne Bravo 2/19, Ravindra Jadeja 2/23) lost to Chennai Super Kings 151/4 (Faf Du Plessis 50, Shane Watson 50) by six wickets.
