The visitors lost regular wickets but managed to keep the asking rate under control
David Warner plays a shot during his 61-run knock against Chennai Super Kings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium at Uppal in Hyderabad on Saturday. (Photo: P. Surendra)
Hyderabad: Up against a superstrong Chennai, the Sunrisers needed to punch way above their weight. They did just that on Saturday night to knock their rivals down much to the delight of the baying home fans here. Defending a healthy 192 for 7, built on David Warner’s scintillating 61, the hosts restricted the table toppers to 170 for 6.
There were quite a few individual performers — Moises Henriques deserves special mention — for the winners but it was Ashish Reddy’s double whammy that did Chennai in. The visitors lost regular wickets but managed to keep the asking rate under control. At halfway stage, with the score reading 87 for 3, the Oranges squandered a golden chance. With Dhoni and Faf du Plessis stranded in the middle of the pitch, Praveen Kumar missed the stumps from third man. The crowd let out a collective groan.
However, Hyderabad allrounder Ashish wiped out the pain in the 13th over. He displayed athletic ability and a sharp presence of mind to fling himself full length to run the dangerous du Plessis out and then bowled ‘Finisher’ Dhoni with the next ball to send the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium into raptures.
Needing 63 off the last five overs with half the side gone, big bats Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja struggled against some disciplined bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Trent Boult before throwing in the towel. Earlier, the Sunrisers finally cashed in on another spectacular start this time to post a strong total. After openers David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan (37) got them off to a flyer — 86 in 8.1 overs — the rest rumbled on.
It was all bright for the Sunrisers at the start. Warner went after Mohit Sharma in the third over of the innings, stepping out to tonk him to the cover boundary and then smashing him over the midwicket for the first six of the innings. A bowler’s backdrive and a deft placement through the vacant midwicket fetched him two more boundaries as the scoreboard sprinted.
There was a bit of drama as well. Pacer Ashish Nehra tried to psyche Warner with a cold stare after beating him with a good delivery but Warner whacked him for successive boundaries to wrest back the initiative. The host captain then served it hot to Nehra, crashing him over cover for another boundary to bring up his half-century in just 20 balls! He celebrated that in style as well, thumping the bowler for another hit over the top of the in-field.
Rival captain Dhoni was equal to the task. He changed the line and pace of the attack by pressing in Suresh Raina’s off-spin and snared Warner, who fell after smashing 11 boundaries and a six.
In went Moises Henriques and out went the ball — Raina roasted out of the park twice straightaway. The Australian had rattled off 19 in 9 balls when he jumped out to Pawan Negi and missed the ball for Dhoni effect the stumping.
SCOREBOARD
Sunrisers Hyderabad: D. Warner c Smith b Raina 61, S. Dhawan (run out) 37, M. Henriques stDhoni b Negi 19, E. Morgan (not out) 32, N. Ojha b Nehra 20, A. Ashish Reddy c Dhoni b Bravo 6, H. Vihari c sub b Bravo 8, Karn Sharma c Jadeja b Bravo 4. Extras (lb1, w3, nb1) 5. Total (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 192.
FoW: 1-86, 2-107, 3-131, 4-156, 5-163, 6-188, 7-192.
Bowling: Mohit 4-0-58-0, Nehra 4-0-31-1, More 2-0-28-0, Raina 4-0-29-1, Bravo 4-0-25-3, Negi 2-0-20-1.
Chennai Super Kings: D. Smith c Vihari b Henriques 21, B. McCullum b B. Kumar 12, S. Raina c Morgan b Henriques 23, Faf du Plessis run out (A. Reddy) 33, M.S. Dhoni b A. Reddy 20, P. Negi b B Kumar 16, D. Bravo (not out) 25, R. Jadeja (not out) 14. Extras (lb-3, w-4) 7. Total (for six wickets in 20 overs) 170.
Fow: 1-14, 2-48, 3-68, 4-114, 5-114, 6-141.
Bowling: T. Boult 4-0-42-0, B. Kumar 4-1-32-2, P. Kumar 4-0-33-0, M. Henriques 4-0-20-2, K. Sharma 2-0-19-0, A. Reddy 2-0-19-1.
( Source : dc )
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