Shaw and Dhawan show CSK who are the kings

A certain Delhi Capitals youngster turned up on Saturday night in the form of his life, as if he was asking his critics to reconsider their thoughts on his technique

That youngster was Prithvi Shaw.

Shaw smashed a quickfire 72 off 38 deliveries to set the momentum in Delhi’s favor as Rishabh Pant’s men chased the 189-run target with eight balls to spare and seven wickets in hand.

Shikhar Dhawan was declared Man Of The Match for his gritty 85, but it was Shaw’s blistering knock that never let Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK stay in the game. The game was in Delhi’s pocket right from the powerplay where the Shaw-Dhawan duo had 65 runs on board.

As for Chennai Super Kings, only Suresh Raina soldiered through the inning with a 56-run knock, with cameos of Moeen Ali and Sam Curran.

With wickets continuously tumbling on one end, Delhi cornered Dhoni’s men and stopped them before they reached a mammoth total.

This also meant Rishabh Pant clinched his maiden IPL win as a captain. The apprentice registered a comprehensive victory over his master in the season opener to achieve the top spot in the IPL points table, even if it is for a while.

Thakur leaking runs

Shardul Thakur entered the contest on the back of a strong bowling performance in the England-India series, yet got spanked for 53 runs.

With the CSK pace spearhead continuing to leak runs, most of the Chennai bowlers also failed to step up to the occasion.

Dwayne Bravo was the pick of the bowlers for CSK for his 1-28 as he showed once again the value of experience in the T20 format.

Should Delhi reconsider their bowling options?

Wins often conceal your flaws and that is what Delhi need to be wary of.

While most of the Delhi Capitals’ bowlers delivered the goods, veteran international bowler Ravichandran Ashwin could not find the right patch.

The spinner got hit for 47 runs and picked just one wicket in his quota of four overs.

These figures could also dent Ashwin’s efforts to get back to the international arena for white-ball cricket.

The Sam Curran show continues

England’s cricket prodigy Sam Curran was once again impressive with the bat.

His 34-run blitz in the death overs propelled CSK to 188 runs despite coming into bat at number 6.

The Englishman backed up his 95 unbeaten in the third ODI between England and India where he almost took the game away from the hosts single-handedly.

Perhaps, the Chennai think tank will elevate him in the batting order to make the most of his clean strikes.

Delhi Capital 190 for 3 (Dhawan 85, Shaw 72) beat Chennai Super Kings 188 for 7 (Raina 54, Ali 36, Avesh 2-23) by seven wickets.