Visakhapatnam: Comeback-man Rishabh Pant hit a much-awaited fifty after David Warner's well-constructed 52 to set up Delhi Capitals' (DC) convincing 20-run win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for whom veteran M S Dhoni's vintage knock was not enough to cross the line in their IPL match here on Sunday.
Faced with a tough 192-run target, Super Kings tried to scale it down through Ajinkya Rahane (45), Dhoni (37 not out) and Daryl Mitchell (34) but Capitals carried far too many guns for them on the night. CSK ended up on 171/6.
In the first session, Warner and Prithvi Shaw (43) overcame a slow start to share a 93-run opening stand before Pant's 32-ball 51 powered DC to 191/5.
Pant, who came into the tournament after recovering from a life-threatening road mishap in December, 2022, belted four boundaries and three maximums
Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (2/21) set the tone for DC's defence with his twin strikes in the powerplay, which led to its fruition by pacer Mukesh Kumar (3/21).
While Ruturaj Gaikwad's (1) trouble against left-arm seamers continued as he was done in by a superb in-swinger, a frustrated Rachin Ravindra (2) holed out to Tristan Stubbs after a 12-ball stay as CSK slumped to 32/2 in six overs.
Rahane and Mitchell provided some stability with a 68-run stand, which included a 17 runs off DC's Impact Player Rasikh Salam's second over but left-arm spinner Axar Patel ousted the New Zealander to break the alliance.
It was a Mukesh show thereafter as coming on to bowl after the 13th over, he struck twice in two balls to remove Rahane and Sameer Rizvi (0), leaving CSK reeling at 102/5 in the 14th over.
Shivam Dube (18) was next to go as Mukesh kept bowling wide outside off and varied the pace as the batter eventually sent one straight to long-off.
With CSK needing 58 off 18 balls, Dhoni walked out to bat for the first time this season amid chants of "Dhoni Dhoni" and treated his fans to some delightful shots.
The former CSK skipper blasted two fours off the first three balls with Ahmed dropping a sitter in the second ball.
Dhoni then clobbered a six over extra cover off Ahmed, who ended up with three Khaleel to concede 12 runs. But Mukesh gave away just five runs in the 19th over to dash CSK's hopes, leaving them to make an impossible 41 off the last over.
Dhoni, who turned the clock back, however, gave his fans enough to cheer with a four and a one-handed six off the first two balls before producing another four and a last-ball six as CSK racked up 20 runs.
But the Dhoni hurricane came a trifle late.
Earlier, the in-form Warner slammed five boundaries and three maximums during his 35-ball 52, while Shaw, playing his first game this season, smashed two sixes and four boundaries in his 27-ball 43.
However, Pathirana produced a sensational catch to dismiss Warner and then returned to strike twice in three balls to bring CSK back into the game.
But Pant, who had looked in fine fettle in his two earlier innings, took his time to settle and then exploded in the end overs to take them close to 200.
