Abhishek guides SRH to easy win
Indian Premier League's sentimental favourites Chennai Super Kings slumped to their fourth successive defeat with young Abhishek Sharma's 50-ball-75 guiding Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden eight-wicket win in this edition of the tournament.
The 21-year-old Sharma took the attack to the opposition with a blistering first IPL half-century which was studded with five fours and three sixes, to help Sunrisers easily chase down the target of 155 with 14 balls to spare.
CSK now have to win at least eight out of their remaining 10 games in order to reach the magic figure of 16 points which during past few years is the cut-off for play-off qualifications.
The left-hander from Punjab, who was bought for Rs 6.5 crore by the Sunrisers in the auction, led India to victory in the U-19 Asia Cup in 2016, before being replaced as captain by Prithvi Shaw months before the 2018 U-19 World Cup.
It was Sunrisers’ first win of this IPL, having lost to Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants in their earlier matches.
CSK have already lost to Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings in earlier games.
On a sluggish pitch, Sharma took the pressure off his captain Kane Williamson (32 off 40 balls) who played second fiddle to the youngster who was in top form after failing to score big in the previous two matches.
Williamson was out in the
13th over off the bowling of left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary (1-30) after sharing an 89-run opening stand with Sharma, who also fell in the 18th to Dwayne Bravo (1-29) with Sunrisers needing just 10 runs.
Rahul Tripathi (39 not out off 15 balls) then ensured that there were no hiccups in the run chase. He glanced Bravo for a boundary to finish the chase in style. Sharma was dropped when on 62 by Ravindra Jadeja off the bowling of Bravo but by then CSK have already lost the plot. The Sunrisers needed 47 runs from six overs with nine wickets in hand.
Sharma struck Mukesh Choudhary for a six in the next over and Tripathi then joined the party with a maximum and a four off Chris Jordan in the 17th over to make it a no contest. All the six CSK bowlers went for runs with Jordan leaking the most, 34 from his three overs and also went wicketless.. Earlier, Moeen Ali top-scored with a 35-ball 48 to guide CSK to 154 for seven after being asked to bat first.
BRIEF SCORES: 155 for 2 (Abhishek 75, Tripathi 39*) beat
CSK 154 for 7 (Moeen 48; Washington 2-21, Natarajan 2-30) by eight wickets.
Abhishek Sharma