Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Deepak Chahar brought their 'A' game to the fore as Chennai Super Kings cantered to a 77-run crushing victory over Delhi Capitals to seal an IPL play-off berth in the national capital on Saturday.
Playing a must-win game, Conway hit a 52-ball-87 and Gaikwad smashed 79 in just 50 deliveries help Chennai Super Kings post a challenging 223/3 after captain MS Dhoni opted to bat.
Conway and Gaikwad came all guns blazing, hitting boundaries and sixes at will at the tacky Kotla pitch. The two put on 141 runs for the opening stand and smashed a total of 14 fours and 10 sixes.
Meanwhile, Delhi's 2023 IPL campaign ended how it began -- with a defeat.
Their match performance was representative of their dismal season -- underwhelming bowling, losing wickets in clumps and an overseas batter doing the heavy lifting with the bat.
Skipper David Warner, DC's best batter this season, waged a lone battle, scoring 86 off 58 deliveries. But in the end the home team could manage only 146/9 in 20 overs after Chahar dealt a killer blow removing a couple of top-order batters within powerplay overs.
It was another shameful performance from DC batters as save Warner, none of the others could cross individual score of 15. The profligate Indian core of Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Lalit Patel and Aman Hakim Khan failed yet again to pile more misery on the Capitals.
Even the crowd was supporting the visitors as it continued to chant 'Dhoni Dhoni' throughout the game and even cheered when Delhi lost wickets.
Chahar (3/22) was the standout bowler for the visitors whileMaheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana picked up two wickets each.
With the win, CSK moved up to 17 points and became the second team to move to the qualifiers.
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