Another day in the IPL and we have witnessed another nail-baiter of a match. This time, the contest was between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings. It was the former who held nerves and got their second win of the season. It was youngsters who shined for SRH. Priyam Garg (51*), Abhishek Sharma (31) and Abdul Samad (1/41) played well and handed over a victory for their side. Chasing a total of 165, Chennai managed to score 157 and lost by 7 runs. Jadeja (50) and Dhoni (47*) performed well but couldn’t win it for their side.
SRH’s skipper David Warner won the toss and elected to bat first. But he didn’t get an ideal start as his opening partner Jonny Bairstow got out in the first over itself. Manish Pandey then played a quickfire innings while Warner on the other side played slowly. When they looked to settle the score, Pandey got dismissed in the bowling of Shardul Thakur. Warner and Williamson were the only hope for SRH at that time. They looked good but Warner got dismissed through a stunning catch by Faf du Plessis in the 11th over. In the very same over, Kane Williamson got out in a bizarre way. When there was no hope left, young players Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma took the responsibility and rose up to the occasion. Both of them hit boundaries of loose balls and saved their wickets. They made a partnership of 77 runs. Priyam played a classy knock and scored his maiden IPL half-century in just 23 balls. By the end of 20 overs, SRH made a respectable score of 164/5.
Sunrisers needed some early wickets to defend the total. They got them as well as SRH bowlers managed to scalp Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plessis inside the powerplay. After the end of power play, CSK were 36/3. In no time, even Kedhar Jadhav got out in the bowling of Abdul Samad. Then, the job fell on the shoulders of MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja. They managed to keep their wickets but failed to score big. Though they made a partnership of 72 runs, it never looked like they were going to chase the total. Jadeja soon completed 50 runs and got out next ball. Dhoni just looked out of form in this match and that is the reason why he couldn’t take his team to the victory shores even though he stayed till the end. Eventually, Chennai ended their innings at 157/5.
Scorecard:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 164/5 (P Garg 51*, A Sharma 31, D Chahar 2/31)
Chennai Super Kings: 157/5 (R Jadeja 50, MS Dhoni 47*, T Natarajan 2/43)