Opener Shikhar Dhawan scored his maiden century in the Indian Premier League, as Delhi Capitals defeated Chennai Super Kings by five wickets at Sharjah on Saturday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Chennai got off to a terrible start as they lost Sam Curran in the first over of the match to Tushar Deshpande for a duck.
Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis steadied the ship and added 87 runs for the second wicket, before Watson was cleaned up by Anrich Nortje for 35 in the 12th over.
Ambati Rayudu then joined du Plessis in the middle and the duo started to up the scoring rate with some big hits.
The Proteas skipper after scoring a fluent 57 was dismissed by Rabada in the 15th over. A late flourish from Rayudu (45) and Ravindra Jadeja (33) in the end helped the Super Kings post a competitive total of 179/4 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.
Anrich Nortje was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi as he ended up with figures of 2/44.
Chasing 180, Delhi Capitals started disastrously by losing Prithvi Shaw early as he chipped the ball straight back to Deepak Chahar.
Ajinkya Rahane joined Shikhar Dhawan in the middle but their partnership didn’t last long, as Sam Curran took an exceptional catch at point to dismiss the former in the fifth over.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer and Dhawan rebuilt the innings with a 68 run stand for the third wicket, before Iyer was dismissed by Dwayne Bravo for 23.
Marcus Stoinis came in and smashed two sixes and a boundary, before falling to Shardul Thakur for a breezy 24.
With 21 required off 12 balls, Sam Curran bowled a brilliant penultimate over and conceded just four runs.
The match went to the wire with Delhi needing 17 runs off the last over. An injury to Bravo forced skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to bowl Ravindra Jadeja. Axar Patel took on Jadeja and smashed him for three sixes, as Capitals reached the target with a ball to spare.
Shikhar Dhawan was declared the Man of the Match.