Chennai Super Kings faced Delhi Daredevils in the 30th match of IPL 2018 at the MCA Stadium, Pune on Monday (April 30). Having suffered a humiliating 8-wicket defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians two days ago, the CSK side made a stellar comeback to register a comprehensive 13-run victory over DD.
Following the trend of the ongoing IPL, DD skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl first. CSK rode on the half centuries of Shane Watson (78 runs off 44 balls) and MS Dhoni (51* runs off 22 balls) to post a mammoth total of 211/4 on the board. Ambati Rayudu (41 runs off 24 balls) was another notable contributor for the CSK.
Chasing the target, DD needed a solid platform but KM Asif demolished their hope with a double strike upfront. Delhi lost their first 4 batsmen for just 74 runs. Although Rishabh Pant (79 off 45 balls) and Vijay Shankar (54* off 31 balls) put on 88-run partnership for the fifth wicket, but they were always playing the catching up role. CSK eventually restricted DD to 198/5 and went on to the pinnacle of the points table with 6 wins in 8 matches.
Just like any other IPL encounter, the Twitterverse was buzzing. Here are some of the top tweets hailing Chennai’s clinical show:
Lungi 1, Pant 0.
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 30, 2018
But well played Pant !#CSKvDD
Dilli Is Saal Bhi Door Ast....?? ???????? #CSKvDD #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 30, 2018
Pant and Shankar made it a close contest but 213 was never going to be easy. Lungi Ngidi was brilliant on debut and he should be a regular in the next few matches at least. But the best thing for me was Dhoni's hitting in the first innings @ChennaiIPL #CSKvDD
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) April 30, 2018
DD must be kicking themselves for that careless run out earlier #CSKvDD
— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) April 30, 2018
Super chase by DD. Rishabh Pant, drawing inspiration from M S Dhoni, showed how destructive he can be. He & Shankar gave CSK royal fright!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 30, 2018
#WhistlePodu over #DilDilli tonight but @vijayshankar260 played with a lot of heart along with @RishabPant777 ,great youngsters ,2 names one is sure to hear about a lot in the future #CSKvDD #IPL #BadriBytes
— subramani badrinath (@s_badrinath) April 30, 2018
High quality performance from @ChennaiIPL. Their best performance of @IPL 11?
— Scott Styris (@scottbstyris) April 30, 2018
Theekuchi rendu pakkam urasina than thee pudikkum.moondru mugam alexpandiyana yenthapakkam urasinalum theepudikkum.@ChennaiIPL nerunginaley theepudikkum da nerungada posukkiduvom #edudavandiya podudawhistle
— Imran Tahir (@ImranTahirSA) April 30, 2018