Kane Williamson’s half-century of fighting (57 on 39 balls) was in vain when the Chennai Super Kings defeated SunRisers Hyderabad by 20 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. With this victory, CSK moved up one place to sixth place in the IPL 2020 points table, with six points from eight games. David Warner and company suffered their fifth loss of the season, but placed above CSK due to their superior net run rate. Chasing 168 down a slow, spinning wicket, with massive limits on one side, was always going to be a tricky business, but SRH’s hitters save Williamson couldn’t get going. His only notable 40-race partnership came for fourth spot between Williamson and young Priyam Garg.
While the New Zealand pattern held firm from one end, it received no support from the other end as they continued to lose ground at regular intervals.
Dhoni used seven pitchers in the game and Piyush Chawla, who was given a chance in the game XI, pitched just one more, conceding eight runs. Dwayne Bravo, who threw the last over of innings, returned with the best 2/25 bowling figures of all CSK bowlers, while Karn Sharma leaked runs in his last over but managed to pick up two wickets. Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur shared three plots with each other.
Previously, CSK captain MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to hit and sent off rover Sam Curran to open innings with Faf du Plessis. Du Plessis was unable to play a single ball in the first two overs and when he finally went on strike in the third over, he fell in the first delivery after beating Sandeep Sharma’s delivery directly to goalkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
Curran, restored the faith shown in him by the CSK leadership, and scored some quick runs (31 of 21 balls), with the help of three fours and two sixes. Sandeep Sharma picked up his second wicket at the Powerplay, clearing Curran in the fifth.
With their two starters back on the pavilion, Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu batted intently and kept the score going, with one and two and some occasional limits.
The duo switched gears in the 15th when they crushed a six apiece against Rashid Khan. Khaleel Ahmed broke the 81-run position by firing Rayudu in the next over. Watson also fell shortly after, as SRH bowlers slowed things down a bit.
However, Dhoni (21 of 13 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (25 not of just 10 balls) played aggressively and scored some crucial runs in the order, leading them to a fight total of 167/6.
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For SRH, Sandeep Sharma was the most economical and productive bowler as he returned with figures of 2/19 in his four-plus spell.
Rashid Khan was inexpensive but ran out of wickets, while Khaleel Ahmed and death specialist T Natarajan leaked runs towards the end but managed to pick two wickets each.
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