The Chennai Leg of IPL 2021 Ends On a Super (Over) Note for the Capitals

SRH vs DC in 50 Words

A good start required? → Enter Prithvi Shaw
Some middle-overs impetus? → Enter Rishabh Pant and his audacity
Need game-changing spells? → Enter Axar Patel and Avesh Khan
Clutch performances in the Super Over? → Enter Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant and his audacity

The Shaw Factor and the Audacity of Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant won the toss, and chose to bat first in the final game at the Chepauk this season. Prithvi Shaw justified that decision immediately, crunching three boundaries off the first three balls of the innings - a couple through covers and one through the on-side. Shikhar Dhawan got his first runs away with a boundary too, before Shaw took his tally of fours in the first two overs to five.

Five balls later, Shaw perfectly connected a lofted cover drive for six. He was in the zone alright! The powerplay ended with DC going past 50 with all wickets still intact. It couldn’t have gone much better.

Shikhar Dhawan was playing second fiddle to the Shaw Show, but the southpaw too got into the act in Suchith’s second over, putting away back-to-back boundaries. At the other end, Shaw was making us drop our jaws further, dancing down the track to the world’s premier T20 bowler and cracking a drive over the in-field on the offside. At the stroke of the halfway mark, Shaw brought up a 35-ball fifty, his second in IPL 2021.

His opening partner, Dhawan lost his wicket to long-time teammate and friend, Rashid Khan. The skipper promoted himself up the order to number 3 to capitalise on the solid start. Things didn’t quite go to plan as a terrible mix up cost Shaw his wicket for 53 with DC on 84/2.

Pant and Smith got together in the middle, tasked with getting DC to a competitive total. A fearless Rishabh Pant reverse swept Rashid for four and it reminded us of a word synonymous to him lately.

With 6 overs to go, the captain hoicked Kaul wide of long-on to add one under the column of sixes before bringing out the reverse and conventional sweeps to collect consecutive boundaries in Rashid’s over.

17 overs and 131 runs into the innings, both Smith and Pant decided to go for it. However, Pant perished on the second ball of the penultimate for 37, before Smith landed a couple of blows in the last over to help us put a fighting 159/4 on the board.

Full Points to Bapu and Avesh

Our defense of 159 began with KG Rabada taking the new Kookaburra. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t hoping for a repeat of Qualifier 2 from IPL 2020 when we saw Rabada vs Warner on the screen. It wasn’t to be, but he started with a tidy over up front. Ashwin took the new ball from the other end, and had a catch dropped off his bowling in the very first over he bowled - Bairstow on 1, dropped by Hetmyer. Bairstow made us pay for the drop by clobbering Stoinis for a four and maximum soon after. He smoked Ashwin over long-on too, before Warner got out courtesy of a Rabada thunderbolt, this time from the in-field.

A fully recovered Axar Patel came on to bowl and took a beating at the hands of Bairstow too, with 11 runs coming off his first over and the fifth of the innings. Just when things were looking out of control, the Indore Express struck with the timely wicket of Bairstow for 38. A ROAR from the bowler followed, and a Thigh-5 from the fielder. You know who he was.

The ever-dependable Kane Williamson got to work with Virat Singh. Kane consolidated, but did not miss boundary opportunities off the DC spinners. Ten overs into the chase, SRH had scored exactly half the target at the loss of two wickets.

As Kane looked more and more solid at the crease, a struggling Virat Singh faltered and lost his wicket to Avesh Khan. With Jadhav for company, Kane’s approach remained the same - strike rotation with the odd boundary. By the end of the 15th over, he’d lost Jadhav too, but he was nearing his fifty and had put the game back in the balance with the run rate required reading a flat 10.

Axar Patel was brought on in the 17th over and he changed the complexion of the match with a double-wicket over, getting rid of Abhishek Sharma and Rashid Khan.

Despite two overs of Rabada up his sleeve, Pant decided to throw the ball to Amit Mishra for the 18th over on a spin-friendly wicket. Kane got him away for a four, but the experienced campaigner kept things tight after that to leave SRH with 28 to get from the final two.

The Indore Express Avesh Khan was having a ball of a night, and it only got better when he picked up his 3rd scalp of the night as Vijay Shankar chopped one on.

However, the drama was far from over. Suchith walked in and pulled off two boundaries to leave Rabada with 16 to defend in the final 6 balls. A slightly misfiring Rabada leaked a four off a ramp to Williamson and a pull for six to Suchith, but still managed to force the Super Over. Just when we thought we’d get by the night with a few nails left…

Can We All Stand Up for Axar Patel and Rishabh Pant?

In another bold move, the returning Axar Patel was handed the responsibility of bowling the Super Over. Spoiler Alert: The Over was Super, and Axar Patel went on to become the only spinner out of five to have bowled a Super Over in the IPL and ended up on the winning side.

The southpaw just kept darting ‘em in at pace and made life very very difficult for Williamson and Warner. In the end, thanks to a short run from Warner too, we had 8 to chase.

The chase began with a couple of singles off the bat and leg and ended with two leg byes, but right there in the middle was one particular shot that probably tilted the scales in our favour. Another reverse sweep off Rashid Khan that got us to use the one word that has now become synonymous with Rishabh Pant - AUDACITY!

Well, it would have been strange had DC gone through an IPL season without gifting fans a win from a Super Over (read: Heart-Stopper!), wouldn’t it?

Brief Scores

Delhi Capitals 159-4 in 20 overs (Prithvi Shaw 53 off 39, Rishabh Pant 37 off 27, Siddharth Kaul 2-31, Rashid Khan 1-31); Sunrisers Hyderabad 159-7 in 20 overs (Kane Williamson 66* off 51, Jonny Bairstow 38 off 18, Avesh Khan 3-34, Axar Patel 2-26)

Super Over: Sunrisers Hyderabad 7-0 (1); Delhi Capitals 8-0 (1)

Match Tied. Delhi Capitals Won the Super Over.

The Chennai Leg of IPL 2021 Ends On a Super (Over) Note for the Capitals