Super Kings beat Sunrisers by 4 runs in thrilling encounter

Kane Williamson and Yusuf Pathan took Sunrisers Hyderabad close but fell at crucial junctures to hand Chennai Super Kings a 4-run win on Sunduy in their IPL 2018 match.

Williamson made 84 off 51 balls while Pathan added 45 runs off 27 balls. They fell in the 18th and 19th over of the chase. Rashid Khan hit 17 runs in the last four balls. SRH needed six off the last ball but Bravo kept Khan down for a single to win the match.

Dwayne Bravo consistently bowled in the block hole in a tense finish. Given the responsibility of bowling the final over with SRH requiring 19 runs, the composed Dwayne Bravo was hit for six and a four by Rashid to bring the equation to six off one. 

Bravo managed to get it on the block hole and Rashid could only manage a single.

It is the first time in five seasons that SRH went into a game without the duo of Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner.

Deepak Chahar had given Cheenai in good start in the second innings with three wickets in his opening spell. 

The 25-year-old Chahar returned very impressive figures of three for 15 in four overs, his victims comprising Ricky Bhui, Manish Pandey and Deepak Hooda.

Earlier, Ambati Rayudu (79) and Suresh Raina (54) had powered CSK to a competitive 182/3 in 20 overs SRH Hyderabad.  Rayudu came into bat at around the halfway stage of CSK’s innings with the scoreboard at 32/2 in 7.1 overs. 

The 32-year-old played innovative shots and did not allow the opposition bowlers to settle down. His flawless half-century which featured nine fours and four sixes was also the joint fastest 50 for Rayudu in IPL, equalling the 27 ball half-century for MI vs RR in Mumbai, 2015. This was also his 15th fifty in IPL.

Batting first, the duo of Rayudu and Raina added 112 runs for the third wicket as SRH struggled for breakthroughs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium after sending back last-match centurion Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis. 

While Rayudu hit four sixes and nine boundaries, the more experienced Raina found the fence five times and cleared it twice.

Dhoni then blazed his way to a 12-ball 25, hitting three boundaries and a six, as the two-time champions crossed 180.

CSK were off to a slow start as they could manage just 27 runs in the mandatory powerplay overs and reached 50 in the 10th over. However, they switched gears after that and were past the 100-run mark by end of 14th over, even as Rayudu brought up his half century in 27 balls. The century partnership needed 51 balls as CSK looked at setting a challenging target.

Dhoni kept up the tempo and hit a few useful boundaries to help his team's cause.

The leading bowler in T20 Internationals, Rashid again went for runs, conceding 50 in his quota of four overs, while Billy Stanlake gave away 38 in his four.

SRH's start was worse than their opponents as they lost three wickets in the six powerplay overs -- all of them falling prey to Chahar.From 22 for three, SRH moved to 71 in the 11th over when Shakib Al Hasan (24) was dismissed by spinner Karn Sharma.

Williamson, however, was not going to go down without a fight as the talismanic New Zealander conjured another half century partnership with Yusuf.

Williamson's knock contained five sixes and as many boundaries and had it not been for SRH's horrid start, he and Yusuf may have helped them cross the line.

With the required run rate heading north with each passing ball, Williamson went for a big shot against Dwayne Bravo and holed out in the deep, thanks to Ravindra Jadeja's brilliant diving effort.

Yusuf, too, got out while going for a maximum and it was almost all over for the franchise. 

Source: DNAIndia