IPL 2024: Dhoni’s cameo goes in vain as DC outshines CSK by 20 runs

CHENNAI: Rishab Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) secured its first win of the season against Chennai Super Kings despite Mahendra Singh Dhoni's binder of an innings at the very end, at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

After winning the toss, Delhi Capitals opted to bat first, and its openers found rhythm from the start. This time, it was not Mitchell Marsh who came alongside David Warner, but Prithvi Shaw.

Despite a poor season last year, the team reposed its trust on the 24-year-old. And he delivered. The youngster put up a great show with the bat, playing all of his trademark shots that had fetched him fans in the past.

Shaw and Warner were in total control of the game up until a blinder of a catch by Matheesha Pathirana at short third man off Mustafizur Rahman’s bowling led to the latter's dismissal.

It was followed by Shaw's exit after a Ravindra Jadeja delivery took the outside-off edge and ended up in Dhoni's hands. By then, however, he had given the necessary momentum to DC innings, scoring 43 runs off 27 balls.

Dismissing the two big guns did not bring any respite for the Chennai team, as what followed was a captain’s show by Rishabh Pant, smashing four boundaries and three sixes to score 51 runs off 32 balls to set a competitive target of 192 runs.

For CSK, Matheesha Pathirana shined with the ball, scalping three, two of which were mind-boggling yorkers.

It was a starkly different situation when CSK came to bat after Khaleel Ahmed dismissed both its openers in the first spell, reducing it to 7/2. The early setback, however, did not seem to affect the team, with Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell adding 68 runs to steady the innings.

The partnership was broken by southpaw Axar Patel who dismissed Mitchell in the 11th over. Three overs later, CSK suffered another double strike when right-arm medium pacer Mukesh Kumar, who was brought in only in the 14th over, sent back Rahane and Sameer Rizvi in back-to-back deliveries.

In the end, CSK suffered its first loss of the season after it fell short by 20 runs.

But despite the loss, there were roaring cheers at the end of the game from CSK fans, who got the first sight of Dhoni batting since last year’s final. And he gave them a reason to reduce the sting of the defeat by smacking sixes all around, including the last ball of the innings.

The very first ball he faced, bowled by Mukesh, was punched through to the backward square leg for a boundary. Dhoni sent the decibel level soaring when he hit his first six off Khaleel’s ball over covers.

In the end, 46 runs were needed in 2 overs - a stiff but not impossible task, especially with Dhoni in red-hot form. But Mukesh held his nerve and bowled an amazing 19th over giving away just five runs.

The target became 41 of 6 balls. Dhoni continued to smack the balls around, scoring 20 in the final over bowled by Anrich Nortje. But his cameo of 37 off 16 balls had no bearing on the final result.

For CSK and Dhoni fans, it was the highlight of the day, as the veteran showed that he could still power the innings around even at 42.

Another positive was Matheesha Pathirana being in full control with the ball. Also, the middle-order, specifically Mitchell and Rahane, stepped up to deliver.

CSK will next face SRH in its next fixture on Friday in Hyderabad.