Delhi Capitals’ dashing opening bat Prithvi Shaw came down with a high fever ahead of his team’s group stage clash against the Chennai Super Kings. The 22-year-old Mumbai batter has since tested negative for COVID-19, although he did end up missing Sunday’s game against CSK and is unlikely to return to action anytime soon.
DC has been plagued by player unavailability issues this season
Shaw’s fever layoff comes as the most recent case of injury/ illness forced player absence that the Capitals have had to deal with this year. DC are the only team so far in this IPL who have had confirmed COVID-19 cases within their ranks and that too on multiple occasions.
Tim Seifert and Mitch Marsh both tested COVID positive at different stages of the tournament, although both of them are fine now. Meanwhile, the likes of Anrich Nortje and Khaleel Ahmed were forced to miss out on matches due to physical injuries. In fact, Shaw’s fever diagnosis came several hours after the DC unit was forced into isolation following yet another COVID case in their dugout. At the time, the name(s) of COVID infected player(s) is unknown.
Match Summary
Sunday’s match was the second time this season that the Capitals missed Shaw in their lineup. The first-time around, his absence was more than compensated by the in-form David Warner scoring a match-winning 92 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. This time around, however, Warner only managed to compile 19 off 12 balls; while Shaw’s replacement, Srikar Bharat, only scored 8 runs.
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Meanwhile, the Chennai Super Kings have managed to hold on to the tiny sliver of a chance they have of making it to this year’s playoffs. Devon Conway (87 off 49) led the men-in-yellow’s batting charge, while Moeen Ali and new-ball bowlers Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh starred with an early burst of wickets right at the top. Chasing 208, the Capitals got bundled out for 117 to register their sixth loss of this season. They’re still in contention for a play-offs spot but will need to win each of their remaining 3 matches.
Brief scores: Chennai 208/6 (Conway 87, Ruturaj 41, Moeen 3/13) beat Delhi 117 (Mitch Marsh 25, Shardul 24, Norte 3/42) by 91 runs.
