It was another disastrous showing from the Delhi Capitals both with bat and ball as they suffered an embarrassing 77 run defeat against Chennai Super Kings -- their ninth defeat of the season from 14 games played.
While CSK showed desperation and hunger in the must-win match, Delhi Capitals' players seemed to lack the motivation and fight to compete.
Rishabh Pant's absence has proved to be a big blow as veteran David Warner, despite his consistent showing with the bat, could not inspire Delhi. Delhi's lack of bench strength, especially among their Indian batters, harmed their IPL 2023 campaign.
The lack of runs from their Indian batters -- Prithvi Shaw (106 runs in 8 matches), Manish Pandey (160 runs in 10 games), Sarfaraz Khan (53 runs in 4 games) and Lalit Yadav (66 runs from six games) -- proved a big factor in another below-par season for Delhi Capitals.
Warner with 516 runs in 14 games and Axar Patel's 283 runs and 11 wickets are the only two positives in an otherwise nightmarish season for Delhi. They had finished runners-up in IPL 2020, while making it to the Play-Offs in 2019 and 2021, but have struggled since.
There was no way back for Delhi after starting the tournament with five successive defeats but a run of four wins from five subsequent games certainly gave them a glimmer of hope.
Once again it was a familiar story against the Chennai Super Kings as they suffered another collective failure.
With Ishant Sharma, who found a new lease of life in IPL 2023 with 10 wickets from eight games, not playing, Delhi were taken apart in the Powerplay by CSK Openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway.
The duo smashed the DC bowlers all around the park in the Powerplay to take CSK to 52 for no loss in six overs. That set the tone for the CSK innings as none of the Delhi bowlers could make an impression in the middle overs with boundaries flowing quite regularly.
Gaikwad smashed 79 from 50 balls, while Conway continued his good form with a sparkling knock of 87 from 52 balls as the opening stand of 141 from 87 balls seemed to have deflated Delhi.
Despite big-hitters Philip Salt, Rilee Rossouw and Axar Patel in their line-up, no one fancied Delhi chasing down 224. DC had lost six matches batting second with their most successful season being the 182 against Royal Challengers Bangalore when Salt slammed 87 from 45 balls.
Just like with the ball, Delhi's hopes with the bat were finished off in the Powerplay itself. Shaw (5) fell in the second over to his Mumbai team-mate Tushar Deshpande while Deepak Chahar left the hosts reeling with the wickets of Salt (3) and Rossouw (0) off successive deliveries in the fifth over.
Delhi's could not recover from 26/3 with CSK easing to an emphatic victory.
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