IPL 2021 | CSK vs DC: What Experts said as Dhawan-Shaw stamped authority at Wankhede

It was a walk in the park sort of day for the Delhi Capitals in the opener as they dismantled Chennai Super Kings bowling line-up to register a thumping victory in their opening encounter of IPL 2021. Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan broke no sweat at all in chasing down 189 as the team comfortably reached the target with one over to spare. 

While Shaw was on a roll hitting every shot in the batsman’s playbook, Dhawan played the situation, giving as much strike as possible to the maverick that was Prithvi Shaw. While the Mumbaikar scored 38 balls 72, the Delhi-born reached his calculated 84 off 54 balls.  

Captains' Viewpoints

Captaining a major team like Delhi Capitals for the first time, Rishabh Pant reacted to the win very calmly saying that they never went after the net run rate even after being in a great position in the chase. “No, there was no effort for the NRR. Prithvi and Shikhar did well for us in the PP. They kept it simple and looked for boundaries,” he said. 

Delhi were 151 for 1 at the end of the 15th over, and with just 38 needed off the last 30 balls, they could have chased it down early. 

Talking about the butterflies in the stomach with the first day at a new job, the 23-year-old agreed that he did get nervous in the middle phase. “In the middle phase, I was under some pressure. But we did well towards the end.” After conceding 136 in the 15 overs, Delhi came back strong and if it wasn’t for the last Tom Curran over in which he was tonked for 23 runs by brother Sam, the Capitals would have restricted Super Kings to under 180. 

Saying that it was very special walking out for the toss with MS Dhoni, Pant revealed that it took courage to back the players that they had got, instead of lamenting over not having Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, their best bowlers from the last season. 

“We were thinking as to what we will do without Nortje and Rabada and I thought we had to do with the options we have,” Pant said. 

MS Dhoni, the losing skipper, who had a horrific game with the bat and also as a skipper, blamed the dew and poor execution from bowlers for this loss. 

“A lot depended on dew, and that factor played on our mind from the start and that's why we wanted to get as many runs as possible. The batters did a good job to reach 188,” Dhoni said in the post-match interview. 

“The execution of the bowlers was poor and there were boundary balls that they bowled, “ continued the 39-year-old, who himself got out for a second-ball duck. “..but the bowlers would have learned and they will apply that in future games,” he further hoped. 

Conceding that Delhi were a better bowling side, Dhoni said, “Their (Delhi) bowlers bowled a great line when it was stopping and seaming a bit.”

Expert Opinion

Shaw, who, before coming to the IPL had impressed one and all with his batting display in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, was the apple of the eye of the expert’s on Twitter. Dhawan too received accolades for being neck to neck with Shaw in stroke-making. 

Veteran cricket journalist and columnist Ayaz Memon summed up the game well picking out the good and bad from it very cleanly. 

Aakash Chopra on the other hand praised the Delhi team which was without the services of their best and still came out on top. 

Vimal Kumar, a broadcast cricket journalist picked out the only fault in the Delhi Capitals unit, their spinners, two of the best in the business- Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin going for plenty. 

Vikrant Gupta was of the opinion that DC openers Shaw and Dhawan had taken over the game from the CSK in the first 10 overs only, letting the team relax and chase the total down easily. 

Popularly known as the Cricket Geek, Peter Miller, termed Dhawan-Shaw the best opening pair aesthetically and it did fit well today considering the kind of shots they played. 

Then there were those tweets, which should be called Wasim Jaffer special. Witty, charming humorous and touching. Foreigner Indian cricketer Rohan Gavaskar too made it to this list. 

While the Capitals will next meet Rajasthan Royals on April 15, Chennai will take on Punjab Kings in the very next game to try and come back from this humiliation at Wankhede.