Johannesburg, May 3 (Inditop) Little-known left-armer Shadab Jakati, playing his second match in the Indian Premier League (IPL), spun Chennai Super Kings to an 18-run victory over Delhi Daredevils at the Wanderers here Saturday.
Chasing 164, Daredevils were restricted to 145 for eight in 20 overs despite half centuries from David Warner (51) and Dinesh Karthik (52). Despite the loss, Daredevils stayed at the second spot in the points table while Super Kings moved up to the fourth spot thanks to Man of the Match Jakati’s four for 24.
Gautam Gambhir, standing in for injured Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag, put Super Kings in to bat and it was the 66-run stand between Suresh Raina (32) and Subramaniam Badrinath (45) that took Chennai Super Kings to a challenging total of 163 in 20 overs.
Opener Murali Vijay (14), who replaced an out-of-form Parthiv Patel, failed to click as Super Kings’ opening blues continued. Matthew Hayden (30), however, kept the runs flowing at the other end but his 19-ball stay was ended by Pradeep Sangwan.
Badrinath and Raina then displayed some bold stroke-play. Dirk Nannes and Ashish Nehra picked up three wickets each but couldn’t stop Super Kings from getting a good score.
Badrinath started cautiously but soon found his rhythm. He hit two sixes and four fours during his 34-ball stay.
Rajat Bhatia (2/17) struck to remove both Raina and Badrinath and slowed down the scoring. Big hitters like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Albie Morkel and Jacob Oram were not allowed to hit their way out but Jakati’s 13 off eight balls took Super Kings to 163.
While chasing, Gambhir (13) again failed to give Daredevils a good start but Australia sensation Warner, playing his first match in the tournament, played a superb 51 off 40 balls to keep Daredevils in the hunt.
Sudip Tyagi picked up Gambhir and A.B. de Villiers in successive deliveries to put Daredevils on the backfoot. But a 74-run stand for the fourth wicket between Warner and Karthik, who slammed 52 off 31 balls, raised Daredevils’ hopes of a fight-back.
Jakati then struck to remove both Warner and Karthik to bring back Super Kings back into the game.
At the end, the Daredevils middle-order collapsed as Super Kings romped home to a comprehensive win.
rounak