Chennai: Delhi Capitals maintained their unbeaten run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with a 25-run win over five-time champions Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday. DC are the new table toppers of the ongoing tournament by winning a game in Chepauk for the first time after 2010.
DC’s win was set up by KL Rahul slamming a superb 77 as an opener, after Faf du Plessis was unfit to play, and propelled them to post 183/6. In reply, CSK suffered yet another poor batting power-play as DC were bang on with their plans.
With the pitch not being conducive for hitting boundaries freely, it meant they could only make 158/5, with Vijay Shankar making 69 not out off 54 balls. For DC, Vipraj Nigam took 2-27, while bowlers, barring Mohit Sharma and Axar Patel, took a wicket each.
DC’s defence of 183 began on a bright note as Rachin Ravindra tried to flick off Mukesh Kumar, but the leading edge was caught by the bowler in his follow-through, and the batter was dismissed for three.
Ruturaj Gaikwad fell into Mitchell Starc’s short-ball trap as his short-arm jab went into the hands of a deep backward square leg, and he was out for five. It was Nigam’s time to strike as Devon Conway’s leading edge off a googly was caught by cover, and the power-play ended at 46/3.
With the pitch slowing down, DC were successful in keeping Shankar and Shivam Dube on a tight leash. The ploy of stifling the run-flow worked well as Dube holed out to long-on off Nigam for 18, and was followed by Kuldeep Yadav using his googly to trap Ravindra Jadeja lbw for two.
Shankar dropped on 18 and 27 apart from surviving a run-out and DC not going for a plumb lbw appeal, broke CSK’s 28-ball boundary drought by pulling Mohit for four, before swiveling and punching Kuldeep for a brace of boundaries.
Even though Shankar reached his fifty off 43 balls and MS Dhoni brought out some big hits after overcoming a slow start, especially doing that in front of his parents, wife, and daughter, to be not out on 30 off 26 balls, it wasn’t enough to prevent a second straight home loss for a struggling CSK in IPL 2025.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 183/6 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 77, Abishek Porel 33; Khaleel Ahmed 2-25, Ravindra Jadeja 1-19) beat Chennai Super Kings 158/5 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 69 not out, MS Dhoni 30 not out; Vipraj Nigam 2-27, Mitchell Starc 1-27) by 25 runs
(IANS)
