Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 29 : Chennai Super Kings (CSK) returned to winning ways at Chepauk with a 78-run triumph over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Sunday in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
SRH struggled to find rhythm and partnerships in their chase of 214. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma started expectedly, straightaway targeting the boundary rope.
In the second over, CSK bounced back and delivered a double blow with Tushar Deshpande dismissing Travis Head (13) and Anmolpreet Singh who was introduced as the Impact Player, got an outside edge off his first ball and was caught at cover.
A couple of overs later, Deshpande got another breakthrough when Abhishek hit it straight to Daryl Mitchell at the deep point.
Aiden Markram and Nitish Reddy tried to offer some stability to SRH's sinking innings. Makram found a few boundaries, but the asking rate kept rising.
As the partnership started building, CSK got the wicket of Nitish Reddy (15) in the ninth over through Ravindra Jadeja.
From there on, SRH couldn't find the momentum with wickets falling at regular intervals and things only became hard for them when Matheesha Pathirana delivered a searing yorker to bowl Markram out for 32 in the 11th over.
SRH never recovered from those jolts. CSK bowlers kept it tight and built pressure even against big hitters like Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad. SRH's innings eventually finished on 134 and handed CSK a big win.
Earlier in the match, after being put to bat CSK's innings was spearheaded by captain Ruturaj Gaikwad's classy 98.
Mitchell supported him with his first fifty of the IPL 2024. The finishing touches were added by Shivam Dube which propelled CSK past 200.
Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed in the third over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mitchell then joined Ruturaj in the middle and they set off on a task to stabilise the CSK innings.
Gaikwad took the mantle of being more aggressive in the initial overs as he targeted the boundaries and ensured CSK got past the 50-run mark within the powerplay.
As the partnership built, they kept rotating the strike and found boundaries at regular intervals. Gaikwad got to his fifty in 27 balls, while Mitchell got to his half-century off 29 balls.
Mitchell was dismissed soon after by Jaydev Unadkat for 52 while trying to clear the boundary.
Dube arrived at the crease and unleashed when Natarajan came on for the 17th over. The left-handed batter hit him for two sixes when he missed the attempted yorkers.
Cummins too was hit for a six very straight in the next over. Unadkat bowled a good penultimate over and conceded only eight runs.
In the last over, Gaikwad fell agonisingly short of a hundred when he found mid-wicket on 98.
Dhoni came in struck a four and Dube then swung through mid-wicket for a massive six and followed that with a single to end the CSK innings with a score of 212/3.
Brief Score: Chennai Super Kings 212/3 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 98, Daryl Mitchell 52; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-38) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 (Aiden Markram 32; Tushar Deshpande 4-27, Matheesha Pathirana 2-17).