Chennai: A disciplined bowling show and a fine unbeaten innings by Devon Conway (77 n o, 57b, 12×4, 1×6) helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven wickets in their IPL encounter here Friday. After restricting SRH to 134 for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs, hosts CSK easily reached the target with eight balls to spare.
Devon Conway seems to have struck a bright patch as he took the opposition bowling to the cleaners hitting them all over the park. Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad (35, 30b, 5×4) put on an 87-run opening stand while chasing a victory target of 135 and the way they batted, the issue never looked in doubt. Gaikwad was run out due to a mix up and till then it looked that the two CSK openers would themselves carry the team to victory.
Spinner Mayank Markande (2/23) was the only bowler to shine for SRH. He picked up the wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu, but lacked support from the other end.
Earlier it was trial by spin for the SRH batters as the CSK slow bowlers, especially Ravindra Jadeja (3/22), came up with a superb performance. Abhishek Sharma (34) was the top scorer for SRH, but the other batters simply just couldn’t get going after being sent in to bat by skipper MS Dhoni. Both Harry Brook (18) and Rahul Tripathi (21) got starts but failed to convert those into substantial knocks.
There was no significant partnership in the middle order as the Hyderabad batters failed to push the score, struggling against the CSK spinners. Jadeja was the key bowler for the Super Kings as he spun a web around the opposition batters. He was well-supported by Maheesh Theekshana (1/27). Jadeja picked up the crucial wickets of Sharma, Tripathi and Mayank Agarwal (2) to put the brakes on the opposition. Such was the dominance of CSK spinners that after 10.3 overs, SRH batters couldn’t get any boundary for the next 36 balls.
Brief scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 for 7 (Abhishek Sharma 34, Ravindra Jadeja 3/22) lost to Chennai Super Kings 138 for 3 in 18.4 overs (Devon Conway 77 n o, Mayank Markande 2/23) by seven wickets.
