Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered their sixth loss in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 at the hands of an in-form Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah on Saturday. Shikhar Dhawan slammed his maiden IPL century and remained unbeaten on 101 to take his team over the line in the thrilling chase which went down the wire.
With 17 runs to defend off the final over, CSK had some hopes of pulling off a heist towards the end but captain MS Dhoni’s decision to bowl Ravindra Jadeja in the decisive 20th over backfired massively for the three-time champions, who continue to struggle in IPL 2020. Defending 17 runs in the final over, Jadeja started with a wide before Dhawan took a single off the first ball.
Axar Patel, who had joined Dhawan in the previous over after the dismissal of Alex Carey, slammed a six off the very first ball he faced from Jadeja in the 20th over to relieve some pressure off his shoulders. He smoked another six on the third delivery to bring the equation down to 3 required off 3 balls. He eventually sealed the victory for his side with a six off the 5th delivery as DC chased down the target of 180 runs with a ball to spare and won by five wickets.
Defending 17 runs off the final over, Jadeja ended up conceding 22 runs in just five deliveries as Dhoni was heavily criticized for his move to use the left-arm spinner for the decisive over. In the post-match presentation, Dhoni revealed Dwayne Bravo, who had already left the field, was unfit to come back and bowl and he had Jadeja and Karn Sharma as his only options after Curran completed his 4-over quota by bowling the 19th over.
“Bravo was not fit, he went out and was really not able to come back. That was the reason we had to bowl (Jadeja). The option was between Karn and Jaddu so I went ahead with Jaddu. Maybe not enough,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation after his side’s sixth loss of the season.
Dhoni also lamented the missed catches of Dhawan during DC’s run-chase. The left-hander was dropped on more then a couple of occasions before he notched up an unbeaten 101 off just 58 balls and took the game away from CSK.
“Shikhar’s wicket was important, we did drop him quite a few times. He’s somebody if he is batting, he’ll keep ticking the scoreboard. He’ll keep taking his chances. If he’s there on the crease, he’ll always maintain a good strike rate. I felt his wicket was crucial,” said Dhoni.
