Mahendra Singh Dhoni, after CSK’s win, on Thursday

New Delhi: From bad to worse.

Delhi DareDevils’ tale of woes in the IPL-VI continued as Chennai Super Kings hammered them at the Kotla, here on Thursday night.

While the 86-run humiliation was Delhi’s sixth loss on the trot, Super Kings notched up their third victory in five outings.

Watched by a capacity crowd, DareDevils could manage only 83 runs in 17.3 overs after Super Kings won the toss and posted a challenging total of 169 for four. DareDevils’ innings never really took off as they lost their four top-order batsmen for only 30 runs and faded out thereafter. This was the lowest total in the ongoing IPL.

In the end, it turned out to be a complete mismatch. After the unexpected defeat against Pune Warriors the other day, Chennai Super Kings were cautious. They executed their plan perfectly. DareDevils did try to counter the moves with their limited resources but it did not produce the desired result.

To bring back Michael Hussey in place of Dirk Nannes proved to be masterstroke. The Australian opener played with a vengeance. His unbeaten knock of 65 in 50 balls held the Super Kings innings together. Hussey hit six fours and two sixes.

The other change Super Kings made from their previous tie also proved to be a correct decision. Medium pacer Mohit Sharma, who came in place of Anirudha Srikkanth, rattled the DareDevils top order. He accounted for David Warner, Virender Sehwag and Manprit Juneja to finished with a sensational spell of three wickets for 10 runs in three overs.

Yet, the man who actually had the crowd roaring was Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The Super Kings captain came after the fall of Suresh Raina’s wicket and slammed 44 runs off only 23 deliveries.

Some of Dhoni’s shots were simply delightful. His best came in the 19th over when he hit Umesh Yadav for a four with his trademark helicopter shot. Dhoni hit five fours and one six and added 74 runs with Hussey for the fourth wicket in only 40 balls. DareDevils bowlers could do little to stop the onslaught.

Super Kings plan was simple. Preserve the wickets and go for runs in the later stage. The first 10 overs produced only 60 runs with the loss of Murali Vijay’s wicket. The next 50 runs were scored off 30 balls. The last 10 overs saw 109 runs being scored, mostly through the efforts of Hussey and Dhoni.

DareDevils, on the other hand, looked desperate to erase the memories of their five consecutive defeats. Mahela Jayawardene made some experiments, the first being to bring Ajit Agarkar in the playing eleven for the first time in the tournament in place of Ashish Nehra.

Agarkar didn’t performed too badly with the ball (none for 29) but let down the team badly by dropping Dhoni in the 16th over. The batsman then was on 17 and was showing all the signs of his typically aggressive batting style. No wonder the bowler Umesh Yadav looked the most frustrated man. The 19th over from Morne Morkel produced 19 runs with Dhoni scoring 11.

If the DareDevils fans were looking for some reasons to smile about when their batsmen came out for the chase, they were a disappointed lot. Warner managed only one, while Jayawardene scored six off 11 deliveries before being trapped leg before by South African pacer Chris Morris.