The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have finally managed to win their third game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 20 runs at the Dubai International stadium On Tuesday. In the first innings, Shane Watson And Ambati Rayudu gave the much-needed impetus for the CSK’s innings followed by brilliant bowling by Dwayne Bravo and Karn Sharma.
Earlier, MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first for the first time in the tournament. CSK made a rare experiment when they decided to send the all-rounder, Sam Curran to open the innings alongside Faf du Plessis. However, the latter got out on a golden duck. Curran repaid the faith as he took the attack to Khaleel Ahmed in the powerplay before eventually getting castled by Sandeep Sharma.
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Shane Watson [42 off 38 balls] and Ambati Rayudu [41 off 34 balls] added as many as 81 runs for the third wicket, but they perished in an attempt to up the ante in the final 5 overs. CSK, however, ended on a high courtesy of Ravindra Jadeja’s whirlwind 10-ball 25 to eventually post a competitive total of 6-167 in 20 overs. For Sunrisers, Sandeep Sharma, Natarajan, and Khaleel Ahmed picked a couple of wickets each, but Sandeep was the19 most economical one as he gave away just 19 runs in his spell of four overs.
Chasing 168 on a slow pitch in Dubai was going to be a difficult task for SRH and things went from bad to worse as their openers, Jonny Bairstow and David Warner couldn’t get going against the new ball. Bairstow never looked comfortable on a slow pitch and Ravindra Jadeja ended his misery for a 24-ball 23. Manish Pandey also got run-out earlier and at 59/3 in the 10th over, SRH looked a bit under pressure.
However, Kane Williamson decided to take control of the game in his own hands as the required rate continued to shot up. He batted smartly throughout the innings and scored a fine half-century and brought down the equation to 42 of 17. Unfortunately, for SRH, he got out off the second ball of the 18th over to Karn Sharma. But this time around, Rashid Khan smashed the leggie all-over the park.
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The Afghanistan leggie smacked 14 more runs in the same over to even make the mighty cool MS Dhoni lose his cool. But it was all smiling in the end for CSK owing to the brilliant bowling by Shardul Thakur and Dwayne Bravo who bowled exceptional last two overs to win the game for their team by 20 runs.
Hits
Shane Watson
After getting his form back with a brilliant 50 against KXIP, CSK opener, Shane Watson was desperate to continue his form and he has been doing it consistently. Watson amassed as many as 42 runs in just 38 deliveries with the help of a four and three 6s.
Dwayne Bravo
Dwayne Bravo has never been a go-to bowler for CSK but tends to get a wicket and he didn’t disappoint when the team needed him. Bowling his second over he managed to Vijay Shankar and he also got the wicket of Shahbaz Nadeem in the final over. He completed his spell after scalping 2 wickets and conceded just 25 runs.
Flops
Jonny Bairstow
It’s been the second consecutive game when Jonny Bairstow has failed to deliver when the team needed him. Apart from his fifty against RCB, he has been a disappointment for SRH.
T Natarajan
After bowling match-winning spells against CSK and KKR, T Natarajan has failed to take wickets for SRH. In order to Sunrisers have a chance to reach the playoffs, Natarajan needs to be more consistent, especially after the injury of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
