CSK vs SRH: David Warner leads from the front in SRH’s convincing win
Inspired by Skipper David Warner’s whirlwind fifty, SunRisers Hyderabad outplayed Chennai Super Kings by 22 runs to notch up a much-needed win and hand the table-toppers their second consecutive defeat in the IPL contest on Saturday.
Put into bat, Warner (28-ball 61) and Shikhar Dhawan (37) stitched an 86-run opening stand to help SRH post 192 for seven in 20 overs.
Warner (378 runs from 8 games) struck from the word go as the left-handed opener hit 11 fours and a six to register his 5th half-century of the tournament and get the orange cap from Rajasthan Royals’ Ajinkya Rahane (339 from 9 matches).
Backing their batsmen’s effort, the bowlers also played their part to restrict CSK to 170 for six in 20 overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-32) drew first blood after the medium-pacer got the dangerous Brendon McCullum (12) to chip an inswinging delivery on to his stumps as the home crowd erupted with joy.
Moises Henriques (2-20) then struck in the sixth over to get Dwayne Smith (21) back in the dug out just when the West Indian was looking to set things on fire. The powerful opener hit 3 fours and a six in his 19-ball stay.
Henriques continued to make in roads after getting Suresh Raina (23) in his very next over to to hurt the CSK chase. The left-hander, who hasn’t missed a single IPL game since the inaugural edition was looking good after hitting 3 good sixes.
Faf du Plessis (33) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (20) then stitched a 46-run fourth wicket partnership as the chase looked to be back on track. But an unlucky run out saw Faf walk back to the dug out and Dhoni was bowled by medium-pacer Ashish Reddy (1-19) on the very next ball and the crowd came alive.
The run was probably the turning point as Dhoni pushed the straight full toss back towards the bowler but hit Faf, then the ball hit the umpire and went to the left of the bowler. Faf thought there was a run there and took off, but by the time he turned around, Reddy had picked the ball up from wide of the crease and hit the stumps.
Pawan Negi raised some hopes for CSK with his 11-ball 15 but the ever-increasing asking rate just proved too much for the two-time champions. Negi was bowled by Bhuvneshwar.
In the end, Dwayne Bravo managed an unbeaten 20-ball 25 to just reduce the margin of loss in the final few overs.
Earlier, Bravo (3-25) stood out amidst a mediocre bowling effort from CSK as SRH batsmen made the most of Warner’s 20-ball half-century.
Off-spinner Raina (1-29) though applied the brakes after getting the dangerous Australian batsman back in the hut as Warner mistimed a pull to deep backward square-leg.
New batsman Henriques (9-ball 19) got a few lusty hits right away but his stay was short-lived after left-arm spinner Negi (1-20) got him stumped on the last ball of the 10th over.
Dhawan did try to bring the innings back on track with Eoin Morgan (32 not out) getting a few good strikes to the fence but the left-handed opener’s run out once again put SRH on the backfoot.
But a ‘light’ interruption — one of the floodlight towers went off — at the start of the 15th over delayed proceedings as players cooled their heels in their respective dug outs.
After the break, CSK bowlers tried to keep the run-rate in check and limit the SRH scoring in the final five overs but Morgan had other ideas.
Purple Cap holder Ashish Nehra (1-31) though did clean up the dangerous-looking Naman Ojha (20) in the 17th over but Morgan did well to hit a four and 2 sixes in his 27-ball cameo.
Medium-pacer Mohit Sharma (0-58), who opened the attack for CSK, was expensive in his quota of overs and especially came in at the wrong end of the stick when Morgan got SRH 15 runs in the penultimate over.
The England batsman though did get a reprieve when McCullum dropped a skier on the fifth ball of the 19th over. And even after Bravo (3-25) got two wickets in the final over and ended the innings with Karn Sharma’s (4) scalp, SRH had managed 49 runs in the last 30 deliveries.
CSK have won 6 out of their 9 games, while SRH, who climbed a place to fifth — equal on points with Delhi Daredevils, have 4 wins and 4 losses from 8 matches.
