Chronicle Editor
MS Dhoni turned back the years to help guide the Chennai Super Kings into the Indian Premier League final with a four-wicket victory over the Delhi Capitals at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Set a target of 173, Dhoni came in at the back-end of the innings and clubbed 18 unbeaten runs from just six deliveries to send the CSK fans into raptures as Chennai ended on 173 for six in reply to Delhi’s 172 for five after Dhoni had won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Chennai seemed to be cruising with Ruturaj Gaikwad (70) and Robin Uthappa (63) having scored 110 runs for the second wicket from just 78 deliveries but Tom Curran’s second over turned the match on its head.
Curran (3.4-0-29-3) broke the second-wicket stand when he had Uthappa caught by Shreyas Iyer on the long-on fence, after Uthappa had struck seven boundaries and two sixes from 44 deliveries and then combined with Iyer again in the same spot to see the back of Shardul Thakur (0).
A third wicket fell in the space of eight balls as Iyer whipped the ball in from the mid-wicket region with Kagiso Rabada whipping the bails off from an awkward position to have Ambati Rayudu run out for just a single.
With Chennai having slipped from 113 for one to 119 for four, Delhi felt that the balance of power had turned in their favour. But Gaikwad, who became just the third CSK player to surpass 600 runs in a season, continued to push his team closer to the finish line.
The right-handed opener, who lost Faf du Plessis (7) early on, being clean-bowled by Anrich Nortje (4-0-31-1), faced 50 deliveries and struck five fours and two sixes but then was caught in the mid-wicket region by Axar Patel from the bowling of Avesh Khan (4-0-47-1) at the start of the penultimate over.
Curran came in for the final over, needing to defend 13 runs but Dhoni saw to it that Chennai would sit back and see who they would face in the final, either Delhi again or one of the Kolkata Knight Riders or Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Earlier, the Delhi innings was built around half-centuries from Prithvi Shaw (60) and an unbeaten 51 by Rishbah Pant. The Delhi captain struck three boundaries and two one-handed sixes from 35 balls, reaching his 50 off the final ball of the innings.
Josh Hazlewood (4-0-29-2) and Moeen Ali (4-0-27-1) had put Delhi on the backfoot, removing Shikhar Dhawan (7), Iyer (1) and Azar (10) to leave the Capitals 80 for four midway through the innings.
Shaw was the aggressor upfront, striking seven boundaries and three sixes before being caught by Du Plessis on the deep extra-cover boundary from the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja (3-0-23-1).
Shimron Hetmyer then joined Pant and the pair rebuilt the innings with a fifth-wicket stand of 83 from 56 balls with the West Indian striking three fours and a six from 24 balls to give his side an above-par total.
Delhi will now watch the Eliminator between KKR and RCB to see who they will take on in the second qualifier to see who faces off against Chennai, who will be playing in their ninth IPL final.
Teams
DELHI CAPITALS – Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Tom Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Patel
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS – Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood – Supersport
Online Reporter