Super Kings beat Daredevils by eight wickets

Chennai Super Kings romped home to a comprehensive eight wicket win over Delhi Daredevils to clinch their sixth win on the trot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Monday.

Chasing a challenging Daredevils total of 178/5, the Chennai outfit completed formalities with two balls to spare to hand the home team their third consecutive loss in the tournament.

Super Kings openers Brendon McCullum (32) and Dwayne Smith went all out right from the start. The duo clicked and scored a fantastic 82-run opening wicket partnership to get their team off to the perfect start.

New Zealander McCullum was slow but stuck beside Smith, who was in a different world altogether. The West Indian smashed pacer Jaydev Unadkat all over the ground, hitting three consecutive sixes in the fourth over.

After McCullum got out, Suresh Raina also provided good company to Smith, who continued with his flurry of sixes, blasting a total of an incredible eight sixes and four fours in his 51-ball knock of 79 which completely took the game out of the Daredevils' hands.

Raina (47 not out) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (12 not out) completed the innings to give the table toppers a total of 12 points from seven games.

Earlier, opener Quinton de Kock gave the Daredevils a good start with three fours and two sixes in his 16-ball knock of 24. But the South African didn't last long as he was run out after some confusion with Murali Vijay (35).

The hosts were put in a spot of bother when skipper Kevin Pietersen was bowled for a duck two balls later off medium pacer Mohit Sharma. The former England captain completely misread the delivery and offered no shot.

Meanwhile, Super Kings bowler Ishwar Pandey maintained good line and length to contain the opposition. From accelerating at a healthy run rate, the Daredevils suddenly slowed down with the fall of the wickets.

But the nature of the Twenty20 format is such that nothing is constant. Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik (51) came out to play the anchor's innings and struck an important third-wicket partnership with Vijay for 71 runs.

Karthik turned it on for the home team with a flurry of boundaries - four fours and three sixes - to bring up the only half-century of the innings.

Just when it looked like the Daredevils would post a big total, the Super Kings scalped Karthik, Laxmi Ratan Shukla (0) and Vijay (35) in a span of 12 runs.

But some big hitting in the slog overs saw the Delhi-outfit post the good total with J.P. Duminy (28 not out) and Kedar Jadhav (29 not out).

Left handed Duminy smashed four consecutive boundaries off Sharma to score 17 runs off the 18th over while Jadhav also hit Sharma for two sixes and a boundary off the final three deliveries of the innings to make it 18 runs from the last over.

Brief scores: Delhi Daredevils 178/5 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 51, Murali Vijay 35, Kedar Jadhav 29 not out; Ravindra Jadeja 1/23, Ravichandran Ashwin 1/29, Ben Hilfenhaus 1/34) lost to Chennai Super Kings 181/2 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 79, Suresh Raina 47 not out, Brendon McCullum 32; Wayne Parnell 1/25, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 1/31).