Chennai Super Kings needed a win against Delhi Capitals to keep their playoff hopes alive and the MS Dhoni-led franchise responded in stunning fashion on Sunday to trump DC by 91 runs at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Devon Conway scored 87 runs in 49 balls, including his third consecutive fifty in IPL 2022 to get his side off to a flying start after Pant chose to bowl first. Late flurries from Shivam Dube (32 off 19) and MS Dhoni (21 off 8) ensured that CSK racked up a huge total of 208/6 in 20 overs.
In reply, Delhi Capitals fell some way short of the required target, as they succumbed to a huge 91-run defeat, thanks to Moeen Ali's brilliant 3-wicket spell, as he gave away just 13 runs in the end.
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The scoreboard pressure was always mounting on the Capitals as they finally managed 117 in 17.4 overs with Moeen (3/13 in 4 overs) taking wickets of Mitchell Marsh (25 off 20 balls) and skipper Rishabh Pant (21 off 11 balls) in quick succession to finish the contest.
Mukesh Choudhary (2/22 in 4 overs), Simarjeet Singh (2/27 in 4 overs) and Dwayne Bravo (2/24 in 2.3 overs) then completed the formalities as CSK are now up to eight points from 11 games and can earn a maximum of 14 points if they win their remaining three games, which unfortunately doesn't look like being enough for play-off qualification.
Delhi Capitals remain in fifth position with 10 points and will now need to win all three remaining games and also expect a few other results to favour them if they harbour any hopes of qualification.
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What has been a major issue with DC's 2022 performance is lack of consistency. There are days when they are brilliant and then on other days less than ordinary with inept performances.
KS Bharat (8 off 5 balls) was playing his first game and can be excused but the likes of Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant have hardly done anything of note during the season and even 209 isn't a chaseable total eight out of 10 times, there wasn't a semblance of fight.
With inputs from PTI
