Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma's brisk 37, Travis Head's 31 and former skipper Aiden Markram's fifty helped the hosts, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in their Indan Premier League game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday.
END OF THE MATCH
- Overs 16-18.1 (SRH 166/4)
Shehbaz Ahmed took the pressure off with a massive six over long-on against off-spinner Moeen Ali. He then again tried to play the reverse sweep but couldn't quite connect it properly and found himself trapped in front of the stumps. He became the second batter to lose a wicket while playing a reverse sweep against Moeen Ali. SRH should still get these runs with utmost ease, but CSK have just made them wobble a bit. Moeen is in the middle of a lovely spell. Unlike Jadeja and Theekshana, he's not bowling darts and is tossing the ball up and the pitch is helping him.
Nitish Reddy, who is playing his maiden IPL game, came out to bat at number six and successfully attempted a reverse sweep against Ravindra Jadeja and took the SRH past the 150-run mark. CSK then brought back Tushar Deshpande into the attack, but Heinrich Klassen saw that as an opportunity to score some runs. He smashed a boundary over covers and got a couple of runs with byes and got dropped on the final ball of the over. However, the local boy, Nitish Reddy smashed a six against Deepak Chahar, who was bowling his last over to finish things off. SRH won the match by six wickets and CSK lost their second consecutive game of the season after two comprehensive victories. - Overs 11-15 (SRH 135/3)
SRH batters did not take any risk after losing a key wicket of Head. They were aiming to play the ball in the gap and keep finding singles and doubles every now and then. Maheesh Theekshana ended his spell with a wicket and conceded only 27 runs off his four overs. CSK spinners are bowling too quick to extract anything from the surface as we have witnessed the ball has done something when SRH bowlers rolled their fingers over the ball. Also, the absence of two of their best bowlers has unsettled their bowling a bit. Markram not only achieved his best score of the day but reached his first fifty of the ongoing season. Markran then played a false shot and went on to play the reverse sweep against off-spinner Moeen Ali and paid its price losing his wicket with an LBW. Heinrich Klassen came out to bat next and Rachin bowled his first over of the season and conceded only three singles. Can CSK pull things back from here and make a game out of it? - Overs 7-10 (SRH 107/2)
SRH batters didn't take many risks after the powerplay as they knew that SRH needed runs per over from here to win the match. Markram hit a six to Jadeja and a boundary to Theekshana. Head got one outside leg stump and he brought out his sweep shot but ended up playing it straight into the hands of Rachin Ravindra in the deep. There was an appeal for LBW against Shahbaz on the very next ball, but the umpire said not out. CSK took review but the pitching was the umpire's call and hence he survived. Still, 39 runs have come for the hosts in this four overs. - Overs 1-6 (SRH 78/1)
Head and Abhishek Sharma opened the innings and came out all guns blazing for SRH while Chahar bowled the first over. Head got a lifeline of the second ball of the first over and then hit the six at the end of it. Abhishek Sharma tore into Mukesh Choudhary as he smashed 27 runs off his first over. Abhishek then took Chahar under his radar hitting a six and boundary, but then the right-arm pacer brought CSK into the contest with his wicket on the next ball. But Markram and Head continued to hammer CSK bowlers to the boundaries and finished the powerplay with 78 runs on the loss of just one wicket.
Highest powerplay scores for SRH in the IPL
81/1 vs MI, Hyderabad, 2024
79/0 vs KKR, Hyderabad, 2017
78/1 vs CSK, Hyderabad, 2024
77/0 vs PBKS, Hyderabad, 2019
77/0 vs DC, Dubai, 2020
END OF CHENNAI SUPER KINGS INNINGS
- Overs 16-20 (CSK 165/5)
Pacer T Natrajan managed to escape in his third over as he conceded only five runs, his first over without a boundary. Jaydev Unadkat bowled one on the pads of Ravindra Jadeja, who flicked one towards fine-leg for a boundary, but CSK failed to capitalise on it. Unadkat made a good comeback and conceded only seven runs off the over. Skipper Pat Cummins bowled the 17th over and conceded 17 runs off it as Jadeja welcomed him with a boundary and Mitchell gave him a send-off with a four.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar bowled the 19th over of the innings and we had a field obstruction from Ravindra Jadeja. The SRH fielder first appealed for a wicket and then withdrew it. Another brilliant over for SRH just 13 runs came from it. T Natrajan bowled the final over of the match and picked a wicket of Daryl Mitchell. But this wicket suddenly energised the crowd as MS Dhoni walked into the middle to play the last three balls of the innings. Natrajan kept rolling his fingers over the ball and conceded a single to MS Dhoni (1 off 2 balls). Jadeja faced the final ball and got the boundary with some help from the fielder. So Jadeja and MS Dhoni remained unbeaten as CSK posted 165/5 after their 20 overs. - Overs 11-15 (CSK 127/4)
Shivam Dube went on the offence and took some charge against T Natrajan, hitting a couple of sixes and also completing a fifty partnership with Ajinkya Rahane. SRH desperately needed a wicket to make a comeback in the contest. Ajinkya Rahane then played some risky shots against Jaydev Udakat, but survived thrice and also got a boundary. Both the batters have taken CSK past the 100-run mark. Rahane needs to shift his gears now because they still have four proper batters waiting for their opportunity as the pressure building on the southpaw batter.
After the timeout, Pat Cummins bowled his third over of the day and picked a wicket of dangerous-looking Shivam Dube, who holed one to the point fielder. Jadeja came out to bat to replace the left-hander and smashed a boundary against Unadkat. Rahane then tried to play a cut shot but found the backward point fielder. CSK lost a couple of wickets in back-to-back overs, the momentum has started to shift towards the hosts. - Overs 7-10 (CSK 84/2)
Just when the CSK were looking to increase their run rate, they lost their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad to Shahbaz Ahmed in the eighth over. However, Ahmed was sent to the boundary on back-to-back deliveries just after taking the first wicket. Interestingly, there was a discussion between wicketkeeper Heinrich Klassen and skipper Pat Cummins, but their plans haven't worked so far for SRH. Markande conceded only six singles in his first over, but then Dubey, who came out to bat at number four, hammered him for a six and four. Looks like the arrival of Dube has worked in CSK's favour only as he smashed 25 off 10 balls he faced.
Pat Cummins brought himself back into the attack witnessing some powerful hits for the southpaw and bowled a decent over and conceded only four runs. - Overs 1-6 (CSK 48/1)
Sunrisers Hyderabad have changed their strategy and given the ball to left-arm orthodox spinner Abhishek Sharma, who conceded only six runs despite Rachin sweeping him for a boundary. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar bowled the second over of the match and beat Rachin thrice in the over, but was unfortunate to not to get a wicket. Cummins handed over the ball to the left-arm pacer and SRH's yorker king Natrajan, who didn't get the start he would have wanted, conceding a couple of boundaries in the over.
Bhuvaneshwar then continued from the other end and finally got his first wicket of this season as Rachin played a false shot and gave a sitter to Aiden Markram at mid-off. Cummins then brought himself into the attack in place of left-arm pacer Natrajan and conceded only seven runs despite Rahane hitting him for a six towards cow corner. Bhuvaneshwar bowled his third over of the spell and it proved to be a very expensive one. Rahane first played a lofted drive for a boundary and then Gaikwad smashed him for a four and six to accumulate 15 runs off an over. With this expensive final over, CSK have won the first phase of their innings. - Impact Substitutes
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tripathi
Chennai Super Kings: Shardul Thakur, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Choudhary - Playing XI
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(wk), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Jaydev Unadkat, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan - Toss
Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to field.
Read More
