So an excellent innings by the 20-year-old Iyer, who helped Delhi saunter in the end to a relatively small target. Brilliant and cheeky batting for one so young. It will only be a consolation for Delhi, but an excellent performance nonetheless.
Cheers for reading, and we’ll be back tomorrow.
Delhi win by six wickets
Jadhav gets a single, then Iyer closes out the win with a hoyed four out to wide long-on, before pushing a single down the ground.
16th over: Delhi 114-4 (Jadhav 0, Iyer 65)
Jadhav is out there for the last rites...
WICKET! Morkel c Pandey b Negi 8 (8) - Delhi 114-4
Iyer brings the 100 up with a swat that goes in the air just past the diving Du Plessis short mid-wicket, but makes it to the boundary, before almost repeating the shot next up, this time just over Du Plessis, but with the same result. He grabs a rapid two then a single, allowing Morkel to absolutely murder one over long-on for six. He’s looking to finish this one early, and with six more to get he doesn’t get hold of a big straight drive and Pandey comes in from long-off to take the catch.
15th over: Delhi 97-3 (Morkel 2, Iyer 54)
Ashwin’s in again, and he claims lbw for one that hit Morkel’s bat before pad. Still, a pretty tidy over, with just two singles coming from it.
14th over: Delhi 95-3 (Morkel 1, Iyer 53)
Albie Morkel is the new bat, and gets off the mark with a clipped single to square-leg.
WICKET! Yuvraj c Sharma b Negi 32 (28) - Delhi 93-3
Negi gets the ball, and gets Yuvraj to go for a big sweep, which he top-edges rather and the ball sails high in the air. Sharma badly misjudged a similar one earlier in the innings, but not that time as he comes in from the fence and pouches a relatively simple catch.
13th over: Delhi 92-2 (Yuvraj 32, Iyer 51)
Yuvraj ambles down the track and launches a six off Ashwin that almost seemed to be in slow-motion. It was certainly pretty effortless. Ashwin’s getting some turn, but Iyer uses it to flip the ball into the leg side, from which they take two runs and it brings up his 50.
12th over: Delhi 82-2 (Yuvraj 25, Iyer 48)
Mike Hussey, the Mr Cricket who isn’t playing much cricket, is interviewed, & when asked how he’s preparing despite not being in the CSK team, basically answers by saying ‘It’s just nice to get out the house, really.’ Four singles come from the over, as well as a lovely late cut from Yuvraj that scoots down to third man for four.
11th over: Delhi 74-2 (Yuvraj 19, Iyer 46)
Suresh Raina is into the attack, which is an interesting move. Iyer plays an inventive but risky scoop sweep thing that goes just past both Dhoni and leg-slip, and to the boundary. The wee scamp. A couple more singles, both tucked off respective pads, from the over.
10th over: Delhi 66-2 (Yuvraj 17, Iyer 40)
Yuvraj gets down on one knee and goes for a big sweep, sort of gloves it but gets enough contact to send the ball fine, and to the boundary. One more single, and Delhi are now ticking along rather nicely.
9th over: Delhi 60-2 (Yuvraj 12, Iyer 39)
Ashwin changes ends, and beats Yuvraj with one that turns past the outside edge. Yuvraj sweeps a single, then Iyer goes for an enormous hoik over cow corner that goes straight up in the air, but Sharma misjudges the flight of it and can’t hold onto the catch running in from the boundary. As is customary and inevitable, Iyer then cuts nicely for four off the next ball.
8th over: Delhi 52-2 (Yuvraj 11, Iyer 32)
Ravi Jadeja has the ball, and rattles through an over that both batsman take a pair of safe singles from.
Updated
7th over: Delhi 48-2 (Yuvraj 9, Iyer 30)
Yuvraj possibly trying to hit himself into form, here. He advances and backs away a little, and carves Pandey through point with a flourish for four, then tries an airy drive that he inside-edges past the stumps and down to fine-leg for a single. Iyer then clears his front foot and plays a glorious inside-out six that sails way over long-off, before collecting four with a more understated but no-less effective leg glance in front of square. A single, then Yuvraj waits for a Pandey slower ball and casually hoys it over mid-off, it bounces once and goes over the boundary. 20 from the over.
6th over: Delhi 28-2 (Yuvraj 0, Iyer 19)
Ravi Ashwin, who oddly didn’t bowl at all in Chennai’s last match, is into the attack, and starts with one on Iyer’s pads that he neatly clips past leg-slip and to the fine boundary for four. That’s all from an otherwise tight over, though.
5th over: Delhi 24-2 (Yuvraj 0, Iyer 15)
Yuvraj Singh is the new batsman, who has only reached double figures (two of them fifties) three times in the tournament so far, and is almost cleaned up as one from Pandey seems to keep a little low. Wicket-maiden from Pandey, who has started superbly.
Updated
WICKET! Duminy b Pandey 6 (7) - Delhi 24-2
Oh, well that’s an exceedingly limp way to go. Duminy tries to guide another down to third man, but can only get an inside-edge form Pandey onto his own stumps, and if they’re not careful they could get themselves in some trouble here.
4th over: Delhi 24-1 (Duminy 6, Iyer 15)
Lovely shot by Duminy, playing a controlled back-foot cut that shoots through the point region and to the boundary. Four more singles are milked from the over.
3rd over: Delhi 16-1 (Duminy 0, Iyer 13)
The left-handed South African is replaced by a left-handed South African, as JP Duminy is the new batsman. He wafts indeterminately at his second ball, missing outside off, and that’s a good over for CSK - just two runs, and a wicket from it.
WICKET! De Kock c Ashwin b Pandey 3 (7) - Delhi 16-1
De Kock comes so far across his stumps you can basically see all of middle & leg, and guides a single down to third man, then Iyer flashes one with a little less control, over the slips and bouncing once before it’s stopped by the same fielder. Then De Kock goes for a big one, looking for the deep backward square fence, but doesn’t get all of it and Ashwin steadies himself before taking a relatively comfortable catch.
2nd over: Delhi 14-0 (De Kock 2, Iyer 12)
A repeat of the first over, as De Kock takes a single, then Iyer plays an almost identical shot to the one before, the result being identical too. The bowler, Mohit Sharma, then beats the youngster with a lovely delivery that just moves away and past Iyer’s outside edge, but the next ball is wider and fuller and Iyer drives, briefly uppishly, through the covers and to the boundary.
1st over: Delhi 5-0 (De Kock 1, Iyer 4)
De Kock defends his first couple, then gets off the mark with a thickish inside-edge from a pull that goes down to fine leg for one. Iyer then gets his first runs with a beautifully-timed lateish cut that flies past gully and third man for four.
The players are back out for this chase that, while small, could still be quite ticklish. Ishwar Pandey will open the bowling to Quinton de Kock and Shreyas Iyer.
Delhi Daredevils require 120 runs to win
You’d think that this would be a rather straightforward chase, after a superb bowling performance - from Zaheer and Nadeem in particular - restricted Chennai to not quite a run-a-ball, but batting doesn’t look an easy business on a slow pitch out there. Still, it will require an equally fine bowling show to keep Delhi down, and for Chennai to confirm their place in the next phase.
20th over: CSK 119-6 (Negi 5, Jadeja 3)
Three singles from the first three balls, the throw from the second knocks keeper Quinton de Kock on his behind. Sandhu then cuts Jadeja in half with on the nipped back, then another two singles to end the over, and the innings.
19th over: CSK 114-6 (Negi 2, Jadeja 1)
Ravi Jadeja is the new man, and he guides the hat-trick ball down to the gully for a single. They take a smart two from a push down to long-on, then a yorker gets past Negi as he tries to give himself some room. A brilliant over ends with a leg-bye, as another well-directed yorker squirts away towards mid-wicket.
WICKET! Dhoni c Nadeem b Zaheer 27 (24) - 110-6
Huge wicket for Zaheer, on to bowl the penultimate over. Dhoni comes down the pitch and goes for a big one, but almost seems to check the shot and sends it high, high, high in the air, and Nadeem runs in from the boundary to take a good running catch. He’s on a hat-trick now, Zaheer...
18th over: CSK 110-5 (Negi 0, Dhoni 27)
Sandhu drops short again to Dhoni, but has less luck that time as the great man pulls powerfully behind square for a one-bounce four.
WICKET! Bravo c Duminy b Sandhu 8 (8) - CSK 105-5
Sandhu into the attack, but starts off with a full toss that Bravo doesn’t quite get all of, but still manages to launch straight down the ground for six. However, two balls later he goes for a big pull, but the ball comes off the splice of the bat and loops gently into the hands of Duminy at mid-off.
17th over: CSK 99-4 (Bravo 2, Dhoni 22)
Yuvraj again, and he beats an attempted cut by Bravo, before they take a leg-bye. Dhoni then finally gets hold of a big shot properly, launching a drive straight down the ground and over the straight fence for six. He then gets four with a slightly more delicate affair, starting to come down the pitch but adjusting when the length is a little shorter and guiding a late cut down to third man. Some superb running brings them two from the final ball of the over, Bravo and Dhoni rushing back from a push into the leg side. A better over, but 13 is probably a minimum from these last few overs.
16th over: CSK 86-4 (Bravo 2, Dhoni 10)
Dwayne Bravo is the new batsman, and he gets a single first up, before Dhoni again goes for a big one but again can’t time it properly, and they take one. Just one more single from another relatively barren over for Chennai.
WICKET! Du Plessis b Morkel 29 (23) - CSK 83-4
Morkel’s back on, and again he gets a wicket early, as Du Plessis tries to guide one down to third man, but instead just chops onto his stumps.
15th over: CSK 83-3 (Du Plessis 29, Dhoni 9)
Yuvraj continues, they get a couple of singles before he fires one down leg, and Du Plessis just helps it round the corner, past short fine leg, and for four.
14th over: CSK 76-3 (Du Plessis 23, Dhoni 9)
De Plessis gets a single, before Sandhu drifts onto Dhoni’s pads, the ball flicks off them and zoots off for four leg-byes. Then there’s some smart running from a Du Plessis dab down to third man, before another pair comes from a slightly mis-timed pull.
Updated
13th over: CSK 65-3 (Du Plessis 17, Dhoni 8)
Yuvraj Singh gets a rare bowl, and the batsmen take him for a few singles, before Dhoni tries a bit more aggression, but can only get one down to long-off. Five runs from the over, and this has been something of a slog. Could be the pitch, which is grassy but quite slow, while the bowlers have been pretty good too.
12th over: CSK 60-3 (Du Plessis 14, Dhoni 6)
Nathan Coulter-Nile isn’t playing, but he’s now being interviewed about the food on offer in the IPL. In the middle, three singles come from the first three balls, before Dhoni takes something of a wild hack at a Yadav ball but gets it to the boundary, just wide of long-on for a one-bounce four.
11th over: CSK 53-3 (Du Plessis 12, Dhoni 1)
Du Plessis walks - literally, walks - down the track and plays a careful drive that goes in the air, but just past a diving Duminy at mid-off, and to the boundary. Dhoni wafts at a drive and misses, before getting off the mark with a push to mid-wicket.
10th over: CSK 46-3 (Du Plessis 6, Dhoni 0)
Dhoni nearly plays on from his second ball, then carefully plays out the rest of the over. He’ll have to go some to post a half-competitive total from here.
WICKET! Raina c Duminy b Yadav 11 (17) - CSK 46-3
For the second over in a row a new bowler gets a wicket straight away, as Yadav joins the attack, gives up a single to Du Plessis before Raina comes down the track but guides an indeterminate drive straight to short cover, where Duminy takes a low catch.
9th over: CSK 45-2 (Du Plessis 5, Raina 11)
Faf du Plessis comes to the crease, and gets four first up after a shove down the ground is misfielded at mid-on, some horribly casual fielding by Tiwray letting it go past him and to the boundary. After a single Morkel beats Raina’s edge with a corker, but then the batsman comes down the track and lifts a nice shot towards third man for two, before getting a boundary with a nice pull between deep square and fine leg.
WICKET! Smith lbw b Morkel 18 (24) - CSK 34-2
Albie Morkel is into the attack, and gets some joy straight away, bowling a straight one that nips back a little and catches Smith right in front of everything. One of the easier lbw decisions, that.
8th over: CSK 34-1 (Smith 18, Raina 5)
Sandhu is into the attack, and Raina guides one just wide of third man. They go for a single, look for two but Smith slips as he turns, with Raina halfway down for the second run, having to turn and dive pretty rapidly, and would’ve been out by a distance had Yuvraj Singh’s throw been on target. Sandhu then drifts onto Smith’s hips, and he feathers a leg glance very fine for four. Raina shovels in front of mid-wicket for two, then pushes towards mid-on for a single. He turned his ankle very slightly going for one of those runs, but looks OK now. Smith cuffs a single out to long leg and that’s the first real decent over for Chennai - ten from it.
7th over: CSK 24-1 (Smith 12, Raina 1)
Nadeem continues with his heady mixture of left-arm tweakers and thinly-disguised seamers, but the constant is the line, which is tight, tight, tight. Well, until he bowls a length ball on off-middle, which Smith gets underneath and fairly launches over long-on and way back into the stands. Nadeem recovers well though, tucking Smith up for the rest of the over.
6th over: CSK 16-1 (Smith 5, Raina 0)
Brilliant stuff this from Delhi. You’d be pretty happy with 16-1 off six overs in a Test match.
WICKET! McCullum c Duminy b Zaheer 11 (21) - CSK 16-1
Again McCullum tries to mix things up, with an attempted reverse scoop thing, then a charge to Zaheer, then a more careful cut shot, then a square drive from a full, wider one, but not much is working at the moment. Then he squares up, tries to go inside out over mid-off, but can only guide it straight into JP Duminy’s hands.
5th over: CSK 16-0 (Smith 5, McCullum 11)
McCullum backs away and throws everything at another from Nadeem, but again doesn’t really time it and only gets one. Smith gets a single then McCullum again gives it the big one, this time not getting all of a slog-sweep, and he takes two out to cow corner. Another charge ends the over, and another mistimed shot brings another single. Frustrating stuff from the batsmen so far.
4th over: CSK 11-0 (Smith 4, McCullum 7)
McCullum charges Zaheer, but can only get a single from a flat-batted shot that sort of comes off the toe of the bat. Smith then plays his tenth and eleventh dots in a row, before getting his first runs by flicking a slightly short ball behind square and to the boundary. ‘DWAYNE’S WORLD’ announces the scoreboard.
3rd over: CSK 6-0 (Smith 0, McCullum 6)
McCullum gets his first look at Nadeem, and tries to put the spinner off his line by coming down the pitch. He doesn’t get any runs from that ball, but perhaps the tactic worked as the next ball is a little short, which ‘Baz’ (for this genuinely seems to be what we’re calling him now) latches onto and thwacks in front of mid-wicket for four. A single from the last ball, but this has still been an excellent start for Delhi.
2nd over: CSK 1-0 (Smith 0, McCullum 1)
It’s Zaheer Khan from the other end, bowling to McCullum, who defends the first two balls. Then the first run comes, but luckily - McCullum edges to gully, where Shreyas Iyer fields it well, throws at the stumps but misses very slightly, with Smith absolutely nowhere. The Delhi youngster probably had a bit more time to set himself and measure the throw, there. Zaheer then very nearly gets an in-dipper through Smith’s defences, and that’s the end of two very economical overs from the Daredevils.
1st over: CSK 0-0 (Smith 0, McCullum 0)
Smith has a few problems getting Nadeem’s opening few balls away, surviving an lbw shout and a couple of arm-balls that are basically seamers. And, indeed, he doesn’t get any of them off the square. A maiden to open the match.
The players are out on the field. ‘Baz’ (as we’re apparently calling him now) McCullum and Dwayne Smith will open. The left-arm spin of Shabhaz Nadeem will open the bowling.
Some pre-match listening, from Public Service Broadcasting...
Before the game, have a read of Andy Bull, writing about You Know Who:
Half an hour before lunch, he begins to tick. He is calmer now. One drive whistles past cover, another disappears straight back past the bowler. There is that signature back-foot drive of his, both feet together, elbow high, body bending like a reed in the wind. The spinner is on before lunch. Step, step, swat. Four. His feet seem sure of themselves, his movements are fluid. Step, step, swat. Six. That’s 95. All of a sudden he gets nervous. A tough caught-and-bowled goes down. There is an appeal for a catch down the leg side, another for a catch down the off. He grins at the bowler. A late cut, and as he comes back for the third run he punches the air. There’s a leap, too. But he doesn’t bother taking his helmet off as he waves his bat to the crowd. You get the impression he still has business in the middle.
It was Colin Graves who changed the game. He blew a great breath of fresh air through English cricket when he said that the first thing Pietersen has to do “is play county cricket for somebody”, if “he does that and then comes out and scores a lot of runs they can’t ignore him I would have thought. But that is up to him.” It’s the oldest, fairest, law in cricket: make your case with runs and wickets. So Pietersen persuaded, Sunrisers Hyderabad to release him from the group stages of the IPL so he could play for Surrey. But he only made 19 and 53* against Glamorgan, 32 and 8* against Essex. Sunrisers said all along they would, most likely, want him back for the final stages of the IPL. This match against Leicestershire was his last, best chance to do what Graves had asked of him.
So McCullum does make the Chennai team, although you’d think this is probably his last game before departing for England. The only change for them is Ashish Nehra is out (with the flu), with Ishwar Pandey coming in. For Delhi, Shahbaz Nadeem and Gurinder Sandhu replace Amit Mishra and Nathan Coulter-Nile.
Team news
Delhi Daredevils
Q de Kock†, SS Iyer, JP Duminy*, Yuvraj Singh, KM Jadhav, SS Tiwary, JA Morkel, J Yadav, GS Sandhu, Z Khan, S Nadeem
Chennai Super Kings
DR Smith, BB McCullum, SK Raina, F du Plessis, P Negi, MS Dhoni*†, DJ Bravo, RA Jadeja, R Ashwin, MM Sharma, IC Pandey
Chennai Super Kings win the toss...
...and will bat. Not a surprise, given that MS Dhoni really doesn’t like chasing.
Preamble
Fatigue has been a problem in the IPL of late. The heat has been stifling in some games, to the point that Brendon McCullum and Virat Kohli were absolutely on their bottoms while compiling their latest pieces of batting majesty in their last games, hardly a surprise when you consider the conditions. It’s a genuine problem, with the humidity seemingly a bigger factor than the heat.
Of course, McCullum is not exactly used to these conditions, as his captain MS Dhoni said the other day: “He comes from New Zealand and it was difficult for him. There is a joke going around in the dressing room: If Brendon McCullum bats for 6-7 overs, he will be cooked.”
McCullum, of the all/some-conquering Chennai Super Kings, will probably not be involved in this game, heading over to England to captain New Zealand in the Test series, but it hardly matters. In fact, whisper it, but this game doesn’t really matter that much. Delhi Daredevils are toast, exiting the competition with just eight points to their name, while Chennai will be in the next phase. Still, there’s pride and that to play for, and first/second place, so let’s not think of it as a complete waste of time.
After all, the whole tournament is something of a frippery, a chance for some flashy entertainment, some big hitting and some spectacular catches, and this game is as likely to provide those as any others. Stick around, it still could be fun.
First ball: 3.30pm BST
Nick will be along shortly; in the meantime have a browse over all the latest IPL news and match reports here.
