CHENNAI: Looking to win their first fixture of the season, Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant opted to bat first at their home ground at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Delhi made two changes in their playing XI with Prithvi Shaw and Ishant Sharma replacing Ricky Bhui and Kuldeep Yadav respectively.
David Warner found a new opening partner in Shaw and the duo started cautiously against the Chennai pacers. However, Warner changed the momentum taking 18 runs off Deepak Chahar's third over.
Mustafizur Rahman, Chennai's hero against Bengaluru in the opening match, was punished straightaway when Shaw hit three back-to-to-back boundaries off the Bangladesh pacer and Delhi ended the powerplay on 62 without losing a wicket. Ruturaj Gaikwad then introduced Ravindra Jadeja's spin, but he conceded 13 runs in his first over.
Matheesha Pathirana then bowled an over without conceding a boundary, but he could not Warner from scoring his first half-century of the season off 32 balls. That joy was short-lived as Pathirana took a sensational diving catch to send Warner back, who was trying to reverse scoop for a boundary. Shaw, too, perished soon, courtesy of a sharp catch by MS Dhoni behind the wickets.
Pant, batting at three, then found a new partner in Mitchell March, but Pathirana bowled two searing yorkers, one at 150.4 kmph to uproot Marsh's middle stump and a delivery later the other yorker at 149 kmph to flatten Tristan Stubbs's off stump. Looking at this destruction from the non-strikers' end, Pant took it upon himself to take Delhi past 150. He went after Tushar Deshpande and Rahman to show his class.
Pathirana felt the heat as well when the captain hit the Sri Lankan pacer for 16 runs in the penultimate over to reach his first fifty off 31 balls. He fell in the same Pathirana over, but Delhi had already posted their highest score of the season at that time.
Abishek Porel and Axar Patel added 12 more runs in the final over to take Delhi's total to 191 for five in the first innings. For Chennai, Pathirana took three wickets while Rahman and Jadeja chipped in with one each.
Brief Score: 191/5 in 20 ovs (David Warner 52, Rishabh Pant; Matheesha Pathirana 3/31) vs Chennai Super Kings
