A target of 173 seemed tough as Anrich Nortje bowled Faf du Plessis through the gate on the fourth ball of the innings. Robin Uthappa, promoted to one-down ahead of Ambati Rauydu, got off the mark with a drive through covers before welcoming Avesh Khan in the next over with a boundary. Ruturaj Gaikwad welcomed Kagiso Rabada in the fourth over by charging down the pitch and slamming a straight six. Uthappa followed it up with a flick off Rabada before taking 20 runs off Khan in the final over of power-play.

 

Delhi pulled things back by drying up the boundaries in four overs after power-play. But Gaikwad and Uthappa kept the scoreboard with the latter reaching his half-century in 35 balls. Gaikwad took Patel for a four and six over his head in the 11th over. Uthappa went after Ravichandran Ashwin in the next over, slamming him for back-to-back fours.

 

But Tom Curran broke the 110-run partnership in the 14th over, as Uthappa miscued the pull to be safely pouched by Shreyas Iyer at long-on after tossing the ball in the air. One brought two for Curran as Shardul 'hakur's promotion to four ended in holing out to long-on. In the next over, Rayudu was run-out as Iyer fired a throw from long-on which Rabada collected quickly to whip off the bails.

 

Gaikwad continued to march before finding deep mid-wicket in the 19th over off Khan. But Ali hit Khan for a four through backward point before Dhoni clobbered a six over deep mid-wicket to take 11 off the over. With 13 needed off the final over, Ali mistimed a pull to deep square leg off Curran on the first ball. Dhoni then struck consecutive boundaries off Curran; slapping over extra cover followed by an inner edge running through fine leg. Dhoni finished off the chase in style with a pull-through mid-wicket, giving his team a spot in the final.

 

Earlier, Delhi were lifted from 80/4 in 10.2 overs to a competitive 172/4 in 20 overs, thanks to an excellent recovery staged by Shimron Hetmyer (37) and Rishabh Pant (51 not out). Delhi reached 51/2 in power-play, 43 of which came off Prithvi Shaw's bat off just 19 balls. Shaw began with two top-edge boundaries off Josh Hazlewood in the second over. Shaw took the attack against Deepak Chahar in the next over, collecting four boundaries, with the most impressive of them a back-foot punch through the gap in point.

 

Shikhar Dhawan lifted Hazlewood for a boundary in his next over. But on the next ball, Hazlewood got Dhawan (7) to nick behind on a seaming-away delivery. But there was no stopping Shaw as he hit two sixes over mid-wicket and down the ground off Thakur. Thakur almost had Shaw out on 42 as MS Dhoni spilled a difficult one-handed catch to his right.

 

Hazlewood had his second wicket of the match as Iyer (1) miscued a flick on the cross-seamer to cover point. Shaw brought up his fifty in 27 balls with a cut through point followed by a sweep through the square on the leg-side off Ravindra Jadeja. Patel's promotion at four didn't pay off, holing out to long-on off Ali in the tenth over. In the next over, Jadeja ended Shaw's stay as the right-hander mistimed the loft to a diving long-off running to his left.

 

Hetmyer and Pant shared an 83-run partnership off 50 balls for the fifth'wicket. The duo's partnership meant that Delhi regained rhythm which had slowed down in the overs 10-13. Dwayne Bravo separated the pair in 19th over as Hetmyer mistimed pull to wide long-on. Pant reached his fifty on the final ball with a brace as Delhi finished beyond'170, which wasn't enough in stopping Chennai from maintaining their clean slate while chasing this season.

 

Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 172/5 in 20 overs (Prithvi Shaw 60, Rishabh Pant 51 not out, Josh Hazlewood 2/29, Ravindra Jadeja 1/23) lost to Chennai Super Kings 173/6 in 19.4 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 70, Robin Uthappa 63, Tom Curran 3/29, Anrich Nortje 1/31) by four wickets.