IPL 2014 – Review of match between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils

CSK Vs DD - IPL 2014

CSK Vs DD - IPL 2014

On May 6, 2014 when the Delhi Daredevils took on the might of Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, not many expected the match to be a tense and tight affair that would go till the last over. Defying the traditional conventions of a match that pits an efficient unit with a non performing one, this encounter was decided at the very end with Chennai Super Kings emerging the victors by 8 wickets in the final over in the game.

Team composition: While Chennai went in with the same game, Delhi decided to bench Rahul Shukla and brought back Laxmi Ratan Shukla for this game.

Batting: Super Kings won the toss and put the Daredevils in. Daredevils reached a total of 178 for 5 in their 20 overs. Dinesh Karthik was the leading scorer with 51 from 36 balls. Other than him, Quinton de Kock (24 from 16 balls), Murali Vijay (35 from 30 balls), JP Duminy (28 from 17) and Kedar Jadhav (29 from 18) played well to take the Delhi based team to a competitive total.

Dwayne Smith was once again the hero with the bat for Super Kings with 79 from 51 balls. He received significant assistance from his opening partner Brendon McCullum (32 from 35 balls) and Suresh Raina (47 from 27 balls).

Bowling: Ravindra Jadeja was the best bowler on view for CSK with 1 for 23 from his 4 overs and Ravichandran Ashwin provided him some superb support with 1 for 29 from his quota. Hilfenhaus got 1 for 34 and Mohit Sharma claimed the crucial wicket of Kevin Pietersen but went for 51 runs in his 4 overs – something of a rarity given the way he operates.

Wayne Parnell (1 for 25) and Shukla (1 for 31) were the best bowlers on show for DD but their combined efforts were not sufficient to mask the run leaking tendencies of Mohammad Shami and Jaydev Unadkat or the inability of Shahbaz Nadeem to pick up wickets in key moments.

Where do the teams go from here?

Chennai Super Kings are on a dream run and now is the perfect time to give opportunity to guys such as Baba Aparajith, Samuel Badree, John Hastings, Matt Henry and Ronit More and keep the whole squad ready just in case the need arises. However, given the way Dhoni likes to operate the chances of that happening are very little. The way they have coped with the absence of a cricketer of Dwayne Bravo’s quality is worth some praise as well.

As far as Delhi is concerned their batting side is doing okay and it is their bowling that needs to be looked into. They need to give opportunities to players such as Siddharth Kaul and HS Sharath and rest bowlers such as Shami and Unadkat who have proved to be ineffective so far. The absence of Coulter-Nile would be a major blow to them. So, they need to look at alternatives from available overseas players and try and attempt to turn the tide in their favor.