IPL 2018, DD vs CSK: 4 Reasons why Chennai lost against Delhi

It was “David vs Goliath” in the IPL today as the bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils took on the Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to field first.

Batting first, Delhi got off to a reasonable start as Rishabh Pant continued his rich vein of form. However, a flurry of wickets in the middle overs pegged things back a little. It was only due to some brilliant hitting by Harshal Patel that Delhi got to a respectable score of 162 runs.

In reply, Chennai began slowly as the openers struggled to get used to the pace of the pitch. Ambati Rayadu smashed 22 runs off Avesh Khan in the 6th over to get Chennai’s innings going.

But a slowdown in the middle overs due to some excellent bowling by Delhi’s spinners got Delhi into the driver’s seat. In the end, in what turned out to be the biggest upset of this year’s IPL, Delhi defeated Chennai by a big margin of 34 runs. Let us have a look at why Chennai lost the contest so badly. 

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#1 Leg spinners have a field day

Delhi went into the match with 2 wrist spinners and the move paid off as both Amit Mishra and Sandeep Lamichhane had an excellent day with the ball. Both of them made very good use of the spin that the pitch offered and did not allow Chennai’s batsmen to get going.

The duo showed remarkable control, not giving any freebies to the opposition. Mishra got the big fish Watson in his very first over while Sandeep got the crucial wicket of Suresh Raina at a very critical stage of the game. The duo conceded just 41 runs of their combined 8 overs and picked up 3 wickets between themselves. It turned out to be the difference at the end.

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