Most consistent team of Indian Premier League, Chennai Super Kings began their campaign with a close win by just a run over Delhi Daredevils. Here top 5 moments that changed the game’s course.
Nathan Counter Nile’s opening spell:
Delhi wanted early strikes after electing to bowl, which was provided by Nathan Counter Nile who got dangerous McCullum with a short delivery. Soon in his next over, Nathan struck again as he ran through Suresh Raina’s stumps, one of the most consistent performer in IPL.
Delhi Daredevil’s death bowling:
At end of 12th over, Chennai were 96 for 3 with set batsmen Faf du Plessis and Jadeja at crease and looked towards 170+ score. But CSK’s hopes were watered by some clever bowling from Delhi spinners. First Duminy got rid of his South African mate after getting hit for a boundary. Mishra and Tahir bowled some tight overs as they gave away just 5 and 6 runs respectively.
It followed with Mishra getting Jadeja and Domnic getting Bravo. The next two overs bowled by Counter Nile and Tahir combinely gave away just 14 runs. However, Dhoni’s couple of sixes in last over resulted 16 runs from it as Chennai managed to yield just 54 runs in last 8 overs.
Nehra strikes for CSK:
In defence of a below par total, Ashish Nehra struck thrice upfront sending all the young Indian batsmen. He started with dismissing Gautam and Agarwal. In his second over he got rid of dangerous and gave a perfect platform for his side.
Chennai Super King’s comeback:
When the game looked like a cakewalk for Delhi, Chennai bowlers brought a twist to the game with crucial breakthroughs. Mohit got set batsman Kedar in 14th over. Bravo and Pandey got rid of Yuvraj and Duminy respectively as the pendulum swung towards CSK.
Albie Morkel at 3:
Morkel’s coming at 3 surprised everyone. However, he played the knock what everyone won’t have expected. He played a silent knock till all the recognised batsmen got out but fired up at the right time. Delhi needed 19 off the last over and Morkel managed to get 5 runs of the first 3 balls but smashed a six to bring down the equation to 8 from 2.
Albie followed it with a couple of runs on next ball and later smashed the last ball of the game down to long off which missed the clearing of boundary by a couple of inches, as DD stood just a couple of runs behind the target.