Watson special gifts Chennai third IPL title

MUMBAI: The Chennai Super Kings defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets on Sunday night to clinch their third Indian Premier League title. In the VIVO IPL 2018 Final played at the Wankhede Stadium, Shane Watson’s belligerent hundred powered CSK’S chaseof 179; the Australian remained unbeaten on 117 and watched from the nonstriker’s end as Ambati Rayudu drilled one through covers for the winning boundary. CSK cruised past the finish line with nine balls to spare.

Watson’s innings was of two contrasting parts. Opening the innings, he struggled to get the ball off the square early on. However, once he got into hitting mode, there was no stopping him. He absolutely pummelled the Sunrisers bowlers, helped himself to a score of 117 and saw his team home. Watson hit 11 fours and 8 sixes in his 57-ball outing. The other useful contribution for CSK came from Suresh Raina, who made 32 from 24 balls, and hit three fours and a six; the lefthander was involved in a 117-run second-wicket partnership with Watson that put CSK on course for a successful chase.

The Sunrisers bowlers tried their best, but it was one of those days where they had no answers to Watson’s onslaught. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan were outstanding, returning combined figures of 8-2-41-0. Crucially for SRH, the wickets column remained empty for both bowlers.

In the evening, put in to bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad got to 1786 riding on useful contributions from almost all their batsmen. Captain Kane Williamson would be SRH’S top-scorer yet again — for the seventh time this season, while Shakib-al-hasan, Yusuf Pathan and Carlos Brathwaite made brisk scores of 23, 45* and 21 respectively. The 51-run stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Williamson for the second wicket would be the biggest partnership in the SRH innings. The Sunrisers scored 42-1 in the powerplay and added 84 (for the loss of two wickets) in the middle overs, before finishing with a flourish; they added 52 in the final five overs.

For CSK, five bowlers picked up one wicket each. Deepak Chahar and Lungi Ngidi were the most impressive.