The 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) featured a noteworthy match between the Delhi Capitals (DC) and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The Rishabh Pant-led team won by 20 runs in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, March 31, but the game’s highlight was a vintage MS Dhoni cameo.
DC, in their first ‘home’ game of the season, chose to bat first after winning the toss. The return of Prithvi Shaw and David Warner fueled the squad’s early success, as Rishabh Pant scored his maiden IPL fifty in three years to help the team post a dominant 191-5 in the first innings.
CSK was unable to respond to Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma’s superb new-ball opening performance. Opening batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra did not appear calm at any time, and CSK was reduced to 7-2 after 2.5 overs of the run chase.
Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell attempted to bring CSK back into the game, but the needed pace proved too high to cover. Even Shivam Dube, Sameer Rizvi, and Ravindra Jadeja battled, with MS Dhoni playing a significant role in decreasing the margin of loss.
The veteran hit 37 runs off only 16 deliveries, including four fours and three sixes, for a strike rate of 231.25.
Social websites were buzzing about a memorable match. Check out these Twitter comments:
“We couldn’t get going in the first three overs and that was the difference” – Ruturaj Gaikwad
CSK suffered its first defeat of the 2024 season, and it was also Ruturaj Gaikwad’s first loss as captain. The reigning champions had a solid start to the season, defeating the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Gujarat Titans (GT) at home, but they were unable to match similar achievements abroad.
Ruturaj Gaikwad cited the discrepancy between the two teams’ powerplays as a crucial factor for the defeat. CSK scored 30 less runs than DC did in the first six-over period.
“We couldn’t get going in the first three overs and that was the difference. At the halfway stage it was gettable. There was extra seam movement and we couldn’t capitalize and we were always behind. We didn’t get the big over to reduce the run rate. After two good games you can expect the third game to go below par, and that’s nothing to worry about. Just two or three hits here and there, in the field if we had stopped one or two boundaries, it could have been different.”
Ruturaj Gaikwad
CSK will meet SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday, April 5.