Chennai Super Kings beat Delhi Daredevils by 9 wickets

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Table-toppers Delhi Daredevils failed to beat Chennai Super Kings' renewed spirt at the latter's home turf in IPL.

Dominating the match throughout, the Super Kings won the match by 9 wickets with 28 balls remaining.

The guests arrived at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium sans devilry as defending champions Chennai Super Kings restricted the visitors to a paltry 114 for five in their allotted 20 overs.

The hosts made light work of the chase by knocking off the target with 4.4 overs to spare. In pursuit, opener Michael Hussey 38 (32b, 5x4, 1x6) was the only Super Kings batsman dismissed.

M. Vijay top-scored with an exciting 48 (40b, 5x4, 1x6), while Suresh Raina also chipped in with 28 (20b, 1x4, 2x6) in the winning cause. The victory took Super Kings to the fourth position on the points table.

After being invited to bat, Daredevils lost both their openers inside the first three overs, which put them on the back-foot. Speedster Ben Hilfenhaus was the chief architect for Super Kings bagging three wickets in as many overs during his first spell.

The Australian bowler struck in the fifth ball off his first over by producing late away movement that rattled Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag’s off stump. Sehwag, who played inside the line of the ball, failed to cover his citadel.

Hilfenhaus claimed his second when compatriot Warner didn’t get the desired elevation in his intended lofted-drive over the arc. R. Ashwin, positioned at mid-off, did not disappoint. For Super Kings, half the job was done when they sent both the prolific openers back in a hurry.

Daredevils lost their third wicket when Naman Ojha fiddled with a harmless leg-side delivery to present MS Dhoni with a low catch. The Super Kings captain made an easy catch look tough by letting the ball pop out before securing it on the rebound. Hilfenhaus completed his fiery first spell with figures of three for 14.

The onus then fell on Mahela Jayawardene to bail his team out from a precarious position. However, the experienced Sri Lankan flopped and followed Ojha almost immediately without adding a run to the total.

Y. Venugopal Rao and Yogesh Nagar came together and added 48 runs in eight overs for the fifth wicket. Venugopal, who looked more assured of the two, carted two sixes in his 24-ball 27. But, he was dismissed through a stunning piece of fielding by Albie Morkel.

The South-African all-rounder, standing at short covers, plucked the ball out of thin air with a full-stretched dive to his left even as Venugopal tried to play an inside-out drive.

Nagar scratched around to score an unbeaten 44 off 47 deliveries inclusive of a six and a boundary.

Daredevils managed to score 20 runs of the last two overs to push their final tally past three figures. That the Daredevils managed to score just four boundaries and three sixes in the entire innings, summed up their plight.