Prithvi Shaw (60) gave a flying start before Shimron Hetmyer (37) and Rishabh Pant (51 not out) carried Delhi Capitals to 172/5 in 20 overs in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2021 at the Dubai International Stadium here on Sunday. Delhi were 80/4 in 10.2 overs before Hetmyer and Pant staged an excellent recovery, helping the team reach a competitive total against Chennai Super Kings.
Pushed into batting first, Delhi reached 51/2 in power-play, 43 of which came off Prithvi Shaw's bat off just 19 balls. Shaw began with two top-edge boundaries off Josh Hazlewood in the second over. He took the attack to Deepak Chahar in the next over, collecting four boundaries, with the most impressive of them a back-foot punch through the gap in point.
Shikhar Dhawan lifted Hazlewood for a boundary in his next over. But on the next ball, the Aussie pacer got Dhawan (7) to nick behind on a seaming-away delivery. But there was no stopping Shaw as he hit two sixes over mid-wicket and down the ground off Shardul Thakur. Thakur almost had Shaw out on 42 as MS Dhoni spilled a difficult one-handed catch to his right.
Hazlewood had his second wicket of the match as Shreyas Iyer (1) miscued a flick on the cross-seamer to cover point. Shaw brought up his fifty in 27 balls with a cut through point followed by a sweep through the square on leg-side off Ravindra Jadeja.
Axar Patel's promotion at four didn't pay off, holing out to long-on off Moeen Ali in the tenth over. In the next over, Jadeja ended Shaw's stay as the right-hander mistimed the loft to a diving long-off running to his left.
Hetmyer and Pant shared an 83-run stand off 50 balls for the fifth wicket. The duo's partnership meant that Delhi regained rhythm which had slowed down in the overs 10-13. Dwayne Bravo separated the pair in 19th over as Hetmyer (37) mistimed pull to wide long-on. Pant reached his fifty with a brace on the final ball as Delhi finished beyond 170.
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 172/5 in 20 overs (Prithvi Shaw 60, Rishabh Pant 51 not out, Josh Hazlewood 2/29, Ravindra Jadeja 1/23) against Chennai Super Kings