Chennai Super Kings finally got back to winning ways as MS Dhoni gave an exemplary display of his leadership skills to marshal CSK to a 20 runs win in a do or die clash against SRH in Dubai.
The result left the Super Kings in a three-way tie in the bottom half of the IPL points table with the Sunrisers and the Rajasthan Royals.
IPL 2020 SRH vs CSK Highlights: Williamson’s dismissal was the final nail in the coffin
Chasing 168 on a slow pitch in Dubai wasn’t going to be easy for SRH and it was evident right from the word go. The duo of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner couldn’t get going against the new ball. Sam Curran dismissed the SRH skipper to make things worse for the Orange Army. Bairstow never looked comfortable on a slow pitch and Ravindra Jadeja ended his misery for a 24-ball 23.
Manish Pandey also got run-out earlier and at 59/3 in the 10th over, SRH looked a bit under pressure. But Kane Williamson took Vijay Shankar and Priyam Garg by his side to take the team close even as the required rate continued to shot up. Williamson batted smartly throughout the innings and scored a fine half-century.
With 59 left from only four overs, Vijay Shankar smashed a six but got out later in the over. However, it was the Kiwi skipper who made scored vital runs later to bring it down to 42 off 17. Unfortunately, for SRH, he got out off the second ball of the 18th over to Karn Sharma. But this time around, Rashid Khan took the responsibility to play some enterprising cricket.
The Afghanistan leggie smacked 14 more runs in the same over to even make the mighty cool MS Dhoni lose his cool. But it was all smiles in the end for CSK thanks to Shardul Thakur and Dwayne Bravo who bowled exceptional last two overs to win the game for their team by 20 runs.
IPL 2020 SRH vs CSK Highlights: Dhoni’s masterplan to promote Curran to top paid off
It was a gamble that MS Dhoni’s CSK took but luckily for them it paid off, as the England all-rounder hit a blistering 21 ball 31 to give CSK a fiery start. While Sandeep Sharma foxed Faf with a superb outswinger for a golden duck, Curran did his job perfectly after getting a hold of the conditions for a couple of overs. He took the attack to Khaleel Ahmed churning out 22 runs from his over.
Though Sandeep caslted him in the fifth over, the left-hander had done his job scoring 31 off 20 balls. Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu then joined hands to stitch a decent partnership filled with ‘intent’ that MS Dhoni talked about after the previous game. The duo added 81 runs for the third wicket nicely mixing caution with aggression in around 11 overs to set the platform for the rest of the batsmen to come and go berserk.
Just when it felt that both Watson and Rayudu, in their 40s, would launch an assault on the opposition, both of them were holed out in the deep in an attempt to send a full toss out of the ground. With two new batsmen in, the momentum halted for a bit for CSK. However, Ravindra Jadeja had other ideas as he pierced gaps nicely to get some important runs.
MS Dhoni also smacked a huge 102-meter six and ran well between the wickets to score 21 off 13 balls. A good final over courtesy of Jadeja (25* off 10) meant that CSK finished on 167 runs for the loss of six wickets after 20 overs.
Brief Scores:
Chennai Super Kings: 167 for 6 (Watson 42, Rayudu 41, Sandeep 2-19)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 147 for 8 (Williamson 57, Bravo 2-25, Karn 2-37)
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