CSK take bragging rights over Sunrisers

Finding the ball bearing

Both Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad are headquartered in Chennai, their offices just a stone’s throw away from each other in MRC Nagar. Their owners are next-doorneighbours,justseparatedbyaroad. Thisseason,hyderabad'shasalreadyhadthree 250-plus scores. Against a weak Chennai attack, with dew in play, 213 was not beyond Hyderabad. But for the second successive match,theirbattingunitfailedtofireastushar Deshpande accounted for Travis Head, Anmolpreetsinghandabhisheksharmainhis first two overs. From there on, Hyderabad’s chaseneverreallymovedthewaytheywanted before they crash-landed for 134, their lowest scorethisseason.afterstrugglingwiththeball, this was a confidence-building performance fromchennai’sattack.afterdeshpandelanded thoseinitialblows,despitetheoutfieldsoaked indew,ravindrajadeja(4-0-22-1)andshardul Thakur (4-0-27-1) came up with economical returns as Mustafizur Rahman and Pathriana also played their part.

Slow start

In the eighth over of Chennai’s innings with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Daryl Mitchell still going at eight runs an over, the fans were beginning to get slightly impatient. As Mitchell took another single off Shahbaz Ahmed, in the Chennai dug-out, physiotherapist Tommy Simsek and Rajvardhan Hangargekar were playing hand cricket, with both signalling a six. In a season where six-hitting records have been rewritten multiple times, Chennai had not even come close to clearing the boundary in the first eight overs. Those eight overs summarised Chennai’s batting as a whole this season. Despite having enough firepower in their ranks, they are yet to unleash themselves fully. Mitchell was still struggling, trying too hard again. Gaikwad was striking at 176, but that wasn’t going to be enough, especially given the dew factor in play. In the previous match here at Chepauk despite putting 210 on board, Chennai were overpowered by Lucknow Super Giants. A defeat here again on Sunday would have landed a huge blow to their play-off hopes.

Mitchell Dazzles

Inthemomentofcrisis,itwasmitchellwho came to the party and provided the impetus. The Kiwi welcomed Pat Cummins with a six over long-off off the first ball he delivered in theninthoverbeforegaikwadendedthatover with another disdainful six over mid-wicket.

Mitchell aced the role for which Chennai bought him for Rs 14 crore. Thanks to his huge frame and reach, the Kiwi can disrupt the length that bowlers intend to hit, like he did to Ahmed, when he made room and hit him straight over his head. Then off Cummins, after shaping to play a scoop, he brought out a reverse-flick as he scored his first fifty of this IPL off 29 deliveries.

Gaikwad, the superstar

If Mitchell was adventurous, Gaikwad was all elegance and poise. As Jaydev Unadkat resorted to cutters, Gaikwad made room on the off-side and flicked him over fine-leg. When Bhuvneshwarkumardeliveredashortball,he depositeditoversquare-leg.battingon80with five overs to go, a second successive century looked likely. When he fetched two more boundaries either side of the square in Cummins' third over, he was on 89 off 46. But from there, he was unable to find boundaries before falling two short of a century.

Brief scores: CSK 212/3 in 20 overs (R Gaikwad 98, D Mitchell 52, S Dube 39 not out) bt SRH 134 all out in 18.5 overs (A Markram 32; Tushar Deshpande 4/27) by 78 runs