IPL 2020 | DC vs CSK: Hits and Flops as Dhawan, Axar Patel trounce Dhoni's Super Kings

Of all the holes in the Chennai Super Kings’ ship Dhoni had talked about, death bowling was exposed in the night when Shikhar Dhawan and Axar Patel put on a show to defy all that men in yellow had to throw at them. Chasing 180 at the sluggish Sharjah stadium, the Delhi Capitals won the game by five wickets and rose to the top of the table dislodging Mumbai Indians.

Here we select the performances that tipped the balance towards either team.

Hits

Shikhar Dhawan

Dhawan batted through the innings and went off the field only after Delhi Capitals won the match in a resounding manner and conquered the top of the table. He completed his century in 57 balls and was brilliant against every bowler that MS Dhoni tried against him.

Dhawan was aggressive on anything that was full bowled to him and especially the six he hit in the 17th over off Sam Curran was reminiscent of what he is capable of doing with the bat. Dhawan has been batting fluently at the top of the order and if Prithvi Shaw can get back to his touch Delhi Capitals are a team to beat in the IPL 2020.

Dhawan showed immaculate precision in picking gaps and adjusted his batting stances every now and then to send the balls into unmanned zones. Chennai Super Kings did not help themselves by dropping as many as four catches off him when he was batting at 25, 27, 50, 79, and Dhawan, like all good players do, made sure that the Super Kings paid for their mistakes.

Axar Patel

When Axar Patel walked into bat in the 19th over, Shikhar Dhawan was timing the strike brilliantly at the other end and by the time he was on the strike in the last over, the match was hanging in balance. With Delhi needing 15 runs off the last four balls of the over bowled by Ravindra Jadeja, Axar belted three sixes off the next four balls and snatched the victory away from the Chennai Super Kings’ hands.

Axar Patel has been a critical element of Delhi's success in the current edition and has stepped up his game after Amit Mishra was ruled out due to an injury. He has performed well with both bat and ball and has shone in crunch situations when the captain has called on him.

Earlier in the night, Axar was superb with the ball as well and squeezed the Super Kings’ batsmen for runs. He was at his usual best of hitting tricky lengths aiming at stumps. Albeit he could not take any wickets, he was miserly in his four overs and yielded only 23 runs.

Ambati Rayudu

When Ambati Rayudu came to bat in the 12th over, the CSK were in an all too familiar position of not having enough runs on the board and the batting pair before him could not hit boundaries at will. Rayudu, too, could not get going from the ball one but a sweep shot in the 14th over bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin got him going.

Rayudu never looked back and started timing the ball brilliantly as the innings progressed. He displayed his range of shots and the six he hit over the extra cover boundary off Anrich Nortje, who has been one of the best death bowlers in the ongoing season of the IPL was nothing short of breathtaking.

Rayudu found an able partner in Ravindra Jadeja and the duo combined to take on the Delhi’s bowlers and built a dominating partnership of 50 runs from just 21 balls and helped Cheanni surge past the 170-mark.

Flops

Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja holds the key in Chennai's success, as well as failures and sadly for him and for the men in yellow both aspects were clearly visible in the match against Delhi Capitals. 

With the bat in hand, he was successful in hitting some lusty blows and guiding the team to a respectable total but a horrible last over where he produced all the five balls in the hitting zones of the batsmen, he also turned to be the villain of the game for the team.

With Bravo going out of the field due to discomfort, Dhoni trusted him to keep a check on Delhi’s hunt of 17 runs but Jadeja was abysmal to start with. He bowled the first ball wide and while Dhawan could take only a single off his next ball, Axar Patel made sure that Jadeja could not get away bowling length balls in the last over of the chase.

MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni’s miserable journey in the IPL 2020 seems to have no end as he is batting a two-front battle. First, he is failing regularly as a lead batsman of the side while his team has not been able to bring their best game so far in the IPL, barring a few games when they have shown the glimpses of their glorious past.

MS Dhoni came to the crease at the number five in the 15th over and while the team required him to go big from the ball one, Dhoni failed yet again to accelerate and left the team in limbo. 

As a captain of the side, Dhoni seemed to be out of control and asked Jadeja to bowl the final over of the game despite not favouring him during the rest of the innings. Prior to the final over Jadeja was given just one over to bowl in the early part of the innings and then was asked to defend 17 runs in the last over of the chase. However, his call was forced due to an unfit Dwayne Bravo who had walked out of the pitch due to some discomfort and did not return. Hence Dhoni was left with the choice of either Jadeja or Karn Sharma for the final over. He would have earned the plaudits had Jadeja pulled it off and hence should be held responsible when the gamble did not pay off as well.

MS Dhoni’s CSK has not played this season like a side that has the legacy of winning three titles and reaching the playoffs and it seems that their days of survival in IPL 2020 are numbered. The team has silently walked into the dangerous territory of must-win games and from now onwards, there will be an additional test of the team’s character apart from the performances they put up in the IPL 2020.

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