Dhoni blitz floors Delhi

May 15, 2013 |

Age Correspondent

chennai

Chennai Super Kings gave the local fans a perfect farewell to the season, as they romped home to a comfortable 33-run victory over Delhi Daredevils in their last match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.
Having entered the match with confirmed playoff berth — courtesy Kings XI Punjab’s upset win over Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier in the day, Chennai now are on top of the table with 22 points.
Chasing a target of 168, Delhi were never really in the chase from the time Mohit Sharma sent back Virender Sehwag for a duck of the second ball of the innings caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Johan Botha and Unmukt Chand picked the odd boundaries and smashed a couple of sixes, but they never really looked settled in the middle, surviving a couple of run-out chances. Chand’s inexperience cost him once more as he tried to sweep Sharma and subsequently skied it to Jason Holder.
Dhoni introduced R. Aswhin immediately after the powerplay and the off-spinner removed Botha, who swept it to Holder at deep square-leg for 23. The impressive Kedhar Jadhav played a reckless shot only to be caught by Dhoni. When Ben Rohrer flicked Albie Morkel straight to Ashwin at square-leg the match was going only one way as Delhi crawled to 65/5 in 10 overs.
Roelof van der Merwe gave company to Warner for a brief period as the Australian tried to catch up with the asking rate with a couple of boundaries and a six, but none of his teammates seemed interested in the chase. Van der Merwe in an attempt to hoist Ashwin into the stands — mistimed it to the waiting hands of Suresh Raina at long-on. Warner then hit Morkel straight to the throat of Murali Vijay at long-leg for 44 and with that ended Delhi’s slim hopes.
Dwayne Bravo, who has picked a wicket every match he has played, removed Umesh Yadav and Ashish Nehra off successive deliveries to take his wicket tally to 24 for the season.
Earlier, after a solid opening-wicket stand between Michael Hussey and Vijay, skipper Dhoni exploded in the end to power Chennai to 168/4 after electing to bat first on a track that, Dhoni said, looked a mystery. Hussey, one of the prolific scorers of this season, and Vijay provided the home team an excellent start. The duo failed to score any boundaries in the first three overs bowled by Irfan Pathan, Siddarth Kaul and Nehra, but Hussey broke the shackles with a couple of shots to the fence off Pathan and soon the left-right combo found their grove.

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