Finance
The Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers took advantage of the slow surface by bowling slower balls and striking hard lengths with good effect. Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Aiden Markram also contributed to the team’s six-wicket victory over the Chennai Super Kings on Friday.
SRH did a good job of holding CSK to 165/5 on a black-soil field at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, where slower deliveries gripped off the pitch as the ball grew older. In order to limit CSK’s run-flow, the seamers gave up just 38 runs in the final five overs. at that period, the hitters struggled to timing their shots against the cutters; Shivam Dube’s 45 was the highest score by a CSK batter at that time, including hitting two fours and four sixes. With no Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana in the eleven, CSK’s bowling bore a depleted look.
Head and Abhishek came out swinging to decide the result of the match in the Power-play itself, where they amassed 78/1. Eventually, SRH completed the chase in 18.1 overs to get consecutive wins at home, with Markram making a 36-ball fifty to give CSK their second successive defeat on the road.
Electing to bowl first, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar found some early swing and was rewarded with his first wicket of IPL 2024 when Rachin Ravindra top-edged a pull to mid-on in the fourth over. Ajinkya Rahane got going by hitting both Cummins and Bhuvneshwar over long-on and non-striker’s head for six and four respectively. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad steered and hit a gorgeous, lofted drive for six off Bhuvneshwar as CSK reached 48/1 in six overs.
But CSK were given a jolt on the first ball of the eighth over when Gaikwad mistimed a loft and holed out to long-on for 26 off 21 balls off Shahbaz Ahmed. Dube came out all guns blazing against spinners by hammering Ahmed for six and four, followed by giving out same treatment to Mayank Markande. Dube thrilled everyone by hammering T. Natarajan for back-to-back sixes over the mid-wicket fence, though he was kept quiet by a change of pace from Cummins. From the other end, Rahane struggled to get fluency due to SRH’s change of pace.
Cummins bowled a slower bouncer well outside the off stump, forcing Dube to throw his hands at it and the batter gave a catch straight to backward point, falling for 45 off 24 balls. The slower ball again did the trick for SRH as Rahane sliced to backward point off Jaydev Unadkat, falling for a 30-ball 35, followed by Daryl Mitchell holing out to long-on off Natarajan in the final over.
Head, chasing 166, was given an early life when he attempted a showy cut off Deepak Chahar, but Moeen Ali dismissed him for nothing in the first over of the chase. After four balls, Head ramped a short ball for six, adding salt to the wounds of CSK. Playing in a competitive match for the first time since December 2022, left-arm fast bowler Mukesh Choudhary was all over the place with his lengths, which presented Abhishek with the perfect opportunity to bowl him for two fours and three sixes, giving up 27 runs in the second over.
After dragging and slapping Chahar for six and four runs, respectively, Abhishek proceeded to time his shots and ended up falling for 37 off just 12 balls. He then sliced uppishly to the backward point. Head and Markram hit six boundaries between themselves as SRH ended the power-play at 78/1 in six overs.
Following a brief lull, Markram found his rhythm, hitting Ravindra Jadeja over long-on for six and dominating Maheesh Theekshana for four more runs. Theekshana dismissed Head for 31 off 24 balls after he had swept to a deep backward square leg, ending the second wicket’s 60-run stand off 42 balls.
Despite Markram reaching his first fifty of the match, Moeen trapped him leg before wicket four balls later, and the two of them removed Shahbaz Ahmed for eighteen in a similar manner. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen scored the last few runs, with the former scoring the winning runs with a spectacular six-ball down the ground. However, it was too late for CSK to create a twist in the game.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 165/5 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 45, Ajinkya Rahane 35; Shahbaz Ahmed 1-11, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-28) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 166/4 in 18.1 overs (Aiden Markram 50, Abhishek Sharma 37; Moeen Ali 2-23, Maheesh Theekshana 1-27) by six wicket.
Source:IANS
