After an excellent start, defending champions Chennai Super Kings’ juggernaut has now been derailed as they suffered their second consecutive defeat in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets on Friday (5 April). Chasing a target of 166 runs, Hyderabad reached the finish line in 18.1 overs.
Although the wicket this match was being played at was not the same as the one where Hyderabad scored 277 runs, the Orange Army had a rather similar start, with both of their openers – Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head – going gung-ho from the first over.
Having missed the entire 2023 season owing to an injury, Mukesh Choudhary played his first match for CSK in nearly two years, albeit it did not go as he would have liked it to. Abhishek Sharma marked his return with two sixes and as many sixes, with Hyderabad accumulating 35 runs from the first couple of overs.
Abhishek did lose his wicket to Deepak Chahar in the next over, but his 12-ball 37 laid the foundation for his successors. What followed next was a 60-run second-wicket stand between Head and Aiden Markram, which took the game completely out of Chennai’s reach.
Head, who was handed a respite by Moeen Ali in the very first over, scored a 24-ball 51, which Aiden Markram recorded a perfectly deserved half-century. Hyderabad did have a few nervous moments when the decision to promote Shahbaz Ahmed up the order did not pay dividends, as the all-rounder scored 18 runs from 19 deliveries, but Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Reddy saw the day out for the hosts.
Bowlers Shine for Sunrisers Hyderabad
Earlier, the bowlers executed the pace-off strategy and hit hard lengths well to help Sunrisers Hyderabad restrict Chennai Super Kings to 165/5 in 20 overs.
With slower deliveries gripping off the pitch when the ball got older, SRH bowlers did well to keep CSK batters in check by conceding just 38 runs in the last five overs. It was a phase where the batters found it difficult to time their shots, with Shivam Dube’s 45 being the top score by a CSK batter, including hitting two fours and four sixes.
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. Shivam Dube came out all guns blazing against spinners by hammering Ahmed for six and four, followed by handing out the 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 the 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.
(With inputs from IANS)
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