Chennai holds their nerves to win a tight match against Delhi - The Indian Premier League’s 8th season started off with a bang and the 2nd match of the tournament was played in Chennai where Chennai Super Kings hosted the Delhi Daredevils. The yellow army has always been the most consistent in the tournament while Daredevils were looking to give a fresh start with the new team. After winning the toss visitors decided to field first.
The Delhi team got their dream start to the match as they took two priced wicket of Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina. Both the batsmen lost their wicket after scoring only 4 runs each. The Delhi team was on top but Dwayne Smith and Faf du Plessis managed to control the innings as they took their team to a score of 71 in 8 overs. Imran Tahir came for Delhi to take the wicket of Smith in the 9th over to break the partnership. Smith lost his wicket after scoring 34 runs. Plessis too couldn’t last long as he lost his wicket after scoring 32 runs. Home team lost 4 wickets at a score of 100 in 13th over. Ravindra Jadeja and Mahendra Singh Dhoni then controlled the innings well. Jadeja lost his wicket after scoring 17 runs while Dhoni stayed till the last over to take the team at a score of 150. Dhoni finished at 30 runs. Nathan Coulter-Nile took 3 wickets for the Daredevils.
It was a competitive score and Delhi didn’t get the start they were looking for. They lost 3 wickets at a score of 39. It was Albie Morkel and Kedar Jadhav who controlled the innings as they took the team to a score of 87 in 13 overs. Mohit Sharma was successful in breaking the partnership as he took the wicket of Jadhav who scored 20 runs. This wicket proved to be the turning point as Yuvraj Singh and Jean Paul Duminy too lost their wickets quickly. Morkel was the only hope for the team in the last over with 19 runs to get in the last over with 2 wickets in hand. At the end Chennai was able to win the match with only 1 runs as Morkel failed to score a 6 from the last ball and hence had to manage with only 4 runs. He ended his innings at 73 as Delhi ended the match at 149 runs.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the Yes Bank maximum sixes award while Faf du Plessis got the HotStar most entertaining player award for the outstanding catch. Ashish Nehra was named as the man of the match for his outstanding bowling.