Visakhapatnam, Mar 31: Veteran opener David Warner and skipper Rishabh Pant hammered quick-fire half-centuries and Prithvi Shaw blazed to a 27-ball 43 as Delhi Capitals managed to post 191/5 in 20 overs in Match 13 of the Indian Premier League at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.

Warner raced to his half-century in 32 balls while Rishabh Pant did one better as he scored his first half-century of IPL 2024 in 31 balls as Delhi Capitals after a slow start, exploded into action. Prithvi Shaw slammed a hat-trick of boundaries off Mustafizur Rahman as he and Warner raised 93 runs for the opening wicket.

After they chose to bat first, Warner and Shaw scored 24 runs from the first four overs and then 51 from the next three as they gave DC their best start of the season. With Pant looking to capitalse on the foundation after both got out in quick succession, DC looked set to go past the 200-run mark.

However, Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana's three-fer applied the brakes as the bowler with a Malinga-like slinging action yorked Mitchell Marsh and Tristian Stubbs in one superb over in which he touched 150.04 on the speed gun, hampered their progress.

Warner and Prithvi Shaw gave Delhi Capitals a brilliant start, their best of this IPL as they blazed to 62 runs in the Power-play they raised a 93-run partnership for the opening wicket on a pitch that looked good for batting.

Warner (52, 35bs, 5x4, 2x6) and Shaw (43, 27b, 4x4, 2x6) were opening for the first time this season with DC deciding to demote Mitchell Marsh from the opening slot and push him down into the middle-order. The move paid off as Warner and Shaw went after the bowling.

Warner ended the opening over by Deepak Chahar with a four, driving them through covers. An over later, he struck DC's first six of the innings by planting into the stands a slightly slower delivery by Chahar. Warner went berserk in Chahar's next over, hitting him for a six, flicked off the pads, and two boundaries to take 17 runs off the over.

Warner hammered Ravindra Jadeja for a four and six as he blazed to a half-century off 32 balls, hammering five boundaries and three sixes. The Aussie opener was dropped by Mustafizur Rahman off his own bowling as it fizzed past him but the Bangladesh pacer had the last laugh as he got the breakthrough for CSK. However, it was more of a Matheesha Pathirana wicket as he brilliantly caught a reverse scoop by Warner, jumping into air and pouching a one-handed catch.

Shaw, who had started a bit slowly dealing in singles against Chahar and Tushar Deshpande. He opened up in the fourth over, dispatching a fuller delivery outside off by his Mumbai teammate Tushar Deshpande past the vacant point region for a one-bounce four.

Shaw was at his best against Mustafizur Rahman in the sixth over, hitting the Bangladesh pacer for a hat-trick of boundaries, flicking one off his pads, using his wrists against a slower one, and then and a superb punch through covers for the third. He slog-swept Jadeja for a six and in the seventh over and then repeated the shot for a slightly more fuller delivery around off for his second six. But Jadeja had his revenge off the next delivery as he extracted an outside edge and Dhoni made no mistake.

Rishabh Pant and Mitchell Marsh took over the scoring but Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana bowled a brilliant over to claim two wickets and applied the brakes on the DC scoring rate. He unleashed two superb yorkers, the second one touching 150kph on the speed gun as he uprooted the middle stump to account for Marsh (18) and Tristan Stubbs (0).

DC were left shell-shocked for a few overs before Pant went after Pathirana, hammering him for six and two boundaries. An attempted yorker from the Sri Lankan Malinga look-alike in action was launched over long-on. The next ball was sent to the long-on boundary and the next delivery sliced over the point region for a boundary as Pant completed his half-century in 31 balls.

He was out on the next ball, trying to hit a shot too many as Pant tried to hit Pathirana out of the ground but sliced and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad caught a skier as DC eventually managed to reach 191/5.

Brief scores:

Delhi Capitals 191/5 in 20 overs (David Warner 52, Rishabh Pant 51, Prithvi Shaw 43; Matheesha Pathirana 3-31) against Chennai Super Kings.

(IANS)

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