IPL 2023: Batting woes leave Delhi hopes hanging by a thread

Delhi Capitals skipper David Warner lamented the team's poor batting performance after its 27-run defeat to Chennai Super Kings left its playoff hopes hanging by a thread.

Chasing 168 for victory against the four-time champion in Chennai, Delhi could manage only 140 for eight as it never recovered from the loss of three early wickets, including Warner, the captain and the opening batter, for a second-ball duck in the first over.

"We threw wickets away. Put too much on pressure on ourselves. Was a gettable total. To sum it up, we needed a better first six. We couldn't rotate strike. We needed to try different things but we couldn't," the Australian player said after the match.

Rilee Rossouw top-scored with 35, but the South African never received good support from the other end as the Delhi Capitals fell well short of the target.

Delhi, which has struggled in the batting department throughout the tournament, remained at the bottom of the table with eight points from 11 matches.

Even if it wins the remaining three matches, the team could still miss out on a place in the playoffs.

Chennai, on the other hand, moved up to the second place in the table with 15 points from 12 games.

The MS Dhoni-led team is now in a great position in the race for the playoffs.

But even Chennai batters found it tough to score on a slow wicket as the Delhi bowlers kept striking at regular intervals.

"It turned a lot in the second half. We know that our spinners use a lot more seam than some of the other bowlers. We thought it'll slow down. We didn't know what's a good score," Dhoni said.

"That's why I wanted the bowlers to bowl their best deliveries but not look for wickets every delivery. That's when you start not bowling well. I felt 166-170 was a good score. But as a batting unit, we can do better."

Dhoni (20 off nine balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (21 off 16 balls) smashed some much-needed boundaries and maximums to take them over the 160-run mark.

Spinners Axar Patel (2/27), Kuldeep Yadav (1/28) and Lalit Yadav (1/34) shared four wickets amongst themselves, while Mitchell Marsh took three scalps.

Dhoni smacked Khaleel Ahmed for a couple of maximums in the penultimate over to give a push to the score on an evening when run-making wasn’t very easy.

None of the CSK batters could go on and get a substantial score with Shivam Dube (25) being the highest score. There were 20s by Ruturaj Gaikwad (24), Ambati Rayudu (23) and Ajinkya Rahane (21).

Brief scores

Chennai Super Kings 167 for 8 (Shivam Dube 25; Mitchell Marsh 3/18, Axar Patel 2/27)

Delhi Capitals 140 for 8 (Rilee Rossouw 35; Matheesha Pathirana 3/37).

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