Despite stumbling in their chase as they fell to 106/5, Kamindu Mendis (32) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (19) helped Sunrisers Hyderabad register a gritty five-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday. With the win, SRH jumped past Rajasthan Royals in the points table to reach seventh place in the table, whereas Chennai Super Kings stand virtually eliminated, having won only two of their nine games.
In their chase of 155, SRH were handed an early blow as Abhishek Sharma (0) was sent back to the pavilion on the second ball of the innings by Shardul Thakur. Travis Head (19) once again struggled to get going in his natural aggressive self before being bowled over by Anshul Kamboj. Heinrich Klassen further added to their troubles when he tried to launch one over long-on but could only find Deepak Hooda in the deep.
Ishan Kishan (44) remained strong from the other end and was joined by Aniket Verma for a crucial 36-run stand. The duo took on the bowling attack, which included two sixes by the latter, whilst Kishan kept chipping away at the total.
After hitting Noor Ahmad for a six on the previous delivery, Kishan was in a rush to take the game away from the home side and ended up hitting a back-tracking Sam Curran, who held onto the ball despite taking a hard fall.
Ahmad struck again to infuse hope in CSK as Aniket showed inexperience by trying to go faster, after having already gotten 12 off the over, and was caught by Deepak Hooda at long-off. Although the situation was very tense with SRH reeling at 106/5, Reddy and Mendis stitched an unbeaten 49-run stand and claimed SRH’s first victory over CSK at the venue.
In the first innings, Youngster Ayush Mhatre continued his impressive breakthrough season by smashing Pat Cummins, Mohammed Shami, and Jaydev Unadkat for six boundaries in the power-play to give his side a good start, despite the early wickets of Shaik Rasheed and Sam Curran. The Men in Yellow were further pushed into a dangerous position as skipper Cummins, with a full-length delivery outside off, saw Mhatre hole it straight to Ishan Kishan at mid-off.
Ravindra Jadeja and Brevis continued to precariously navigate the innings, in hopes of not losing any more wickets. But the former was dismissed after hitting a six off Zeeshan Ansari, when Kamindu Mendis’ slider stayed low and crashed into the stumps.
Brevs targeted Mendis in the next over and rejuvenated the Chepauk crowd with three sixes in the 12th over before he was dismissed by Patel in the next over. Shivam Dube soon followed as he was caught by Sharma off Unadkat in the next over.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6), Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad (2), and Khaleel Ahmed (1*) failed to add any significant runs to the tally whereas Deepak Hooda (22) added some valuable runs in the last two overs, with a six and a four, before being dismissed with one ball to spare as CSK were bowled out for 154 all out.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 154 all out in 19.5 overs (Dewald Brevis 42, Ayush Mhatre 30; Harshal Patel 4-28, Pat Cummins 2-21, Jaydev Unadkat 2-21) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 155/5 in 18.4 overs (Ishan Kishan 44, Kamindu Mendis 32; Noor Ahmad 2-42, Anshul Kamboj 1-1) by five wickets
