New Delhi: Few sports teams look as out of place in home conditions as Delhi Capitals do at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Here for the second match in a row, Capitals pushed their erratic and inefficient batting forward to 155/7. Chennai Super Kings To follow it up with eight wickets and 15 balls on Tuesday evening. Not for nothing that the local crowd always supports the visiting teams. Despite MS Dhoni not traveling for the game, the stadium turned yellow in favor of CSK. The deafening roar after every wicket must have been terrifying for Delhi Capitals. It doesn’t help when you’re playing for your survival in a tournament. At the end of the day, CSK’s bowling and Sanju SamsonA solid innings of 87 runs unbeaten at 52 gave a lesson in playing at a relatively slow level. This is why CSK are still breathing in this tournament while Capitals are now on the brink.
CSK squared off with the left-arm spinner Aqeel Hussain Opened the bowling and returned figures of 1/19 from his four overs. Samson, batting with great composure and clarity, anchored and led the chase to a beauty. It was again a reflection of his growing stature as a senior batsman that helped rookie Karthik Sharma accelerate his innings with less pressure and score an unbeaten 41 off 31 balls. An unbeaten partnership of 114 runs between Capital’s leading batsman KL Rahul and Akshar PatelUnable to step into situations that further challenge your strength. Kuldeep YadavHis substandard bowling, scoring 34 runs in his three overs on a helpful pitch, dealt another blow to his reputation. Rahul, as has been the case with him on slightly tougher surfaces, played a calm powerplay that fetched 37/1 for the Capitals. Hossain’s chant was almost a sign of resignation from Rahul as he was dismissed for 12 for 13 in the sixth over of the match. Captain Akshar Patel’s struggle seems endless. Tuesday’s action may have been a welcome break from the run-scoring trend in the IPL. But it also demonstrated the inability of the modern batsman to find the middle ground when conditions give the bowlers something to work with. Twice in as many games here, the Capitals have been forced to use their impact player in the first innings of a match. If Abhishek Poral was coming in to bat at No. 7 in the powerplay against Royal Challengers Bengaluru last week, it was Sameer Rizvi’s turn to bring some respectability with 69/5. But it also meant that the Capitals could not use their third spinner on a relatively slow track to defend the score in the second half of the match. It has now been established that Rizvi is most comfortable playing a relaxed knock in situations that do not demand a high scoring rate. And he stuck to his game plan—a very cautious start to his innings and then ended with an unbeaten 40 off 24 balls at the back end.
