During the first Qualifier of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Mumbai, Chennai Super Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 2 wickets in a cliffhanger.
After Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and put Sunrisers Hyderabad into bat, they scored 139-7 in their allotted quota of 20 overs. Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Lungi Ngidi in combination bowled 12 economical overs which sucked out of Hyderabad’s innings. For the batting team, posting a decent total was possible due to Brathwaite’s onslaught in the slog overs.
In the second innings, Chennai Super Kings got off to a faltering start as they were reduced to 24-3 in the fourth over. Wicket kept falling at regular intervals, which obviously did not help their case. When the required run rate jumps 10 even in a 140-run chase, you can imagine the quality of the bowling attack.
However, the Sunrisers’ bowlers couldn’t get past one man, someone who had played a limited number of the match in this season. When Dhoni sent in Faf du Plessis to open the innings, many of us were of a different opinion. It was du Plessis’ experience which Dhoni was counting upon and eventually benefited in this nerve-wrenching match.
Now, we will look at the hits and flops players in this match.
Hits
Faf du Plessis (CSK)
Opening the innings along with Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis played tills the last ball of the game and made sure that his team gets over the line. He played match-winning innings of 77* out of just 42 balls with the help of five fours and 4 sixes. He was also named as ‘Man of the match’. He also finished the game with a six over bowler’s head.
Shardul Thakur (CSK)
Coming as the first change bowler in the 5th over of the match, Shardul Thakur grabbed the priced wicket of Kane Williamson in his first over itself and finish the innings with the spell with the figures of 4-0-20-1. However, he became the hero for CSK with his bat, as he came into bat when they needed 23 in last 2 overs and he played a knock of 15 off just 5 balls and single-handedly took the game away from SRH.
Carlos Brathwaite
Coming in, to bat at no. 7 when the chips were down. Carlos Brathwaite showed some character as he stayed at the crease till the last ball of the innings. He played innings of 43 off just 29 balls with the help of one four and 4 sixes (all of them against Thakur). However, he failed to make a mark with the bowled as he gave away 31 runs in his spell of 3 overs without taking a wicket.
