6 min readChennaiApr 29, 2024 05:44 PM IST
First published on: Apr 29, 2024 at 12:15 AM IST
SYNOPSIS: Having blown hot and cold so far in the campaign, Chennai Super Kings put up their first all-round show to thump Sunrisers Hyderabad by 78 runs.
As Aiden Markram was cleaned up by Mathesha Pathirana’s yorker, the Chepauk DJ played the hit number “Enga area ula varadha (Don’t enter our territory). Both Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad are not just headquartered in Chennai, their offices are just a stone’s throw away from each other in MRC Nagar. Their owners are next-door neighbours, just separated by a road.
Right through this season, Hyderabad have been a thorn in the flesh of opposition teams. Their batting unit has three 250-plus scores this IPL. Against a weak Chennai attack, with dew in play, 213 was definitely not beyond Hyderabad. But for the second successive match, their batting unit, especially the top order, failed to fire as Tushar Deshpande accounted for Travis Head, Anmolpreet Singh and Abhishek Sharma in his first two overs.
From there on, Hyderabad’s chase never really moved the way they wanted before they crash-landed for 134, their lowest score this season. After struggling with the ball, this was a confidence-building performance from Chennai’s attack. After Deshpande landed those initial blows, despite the outfield soaked in dew, Ravindra Jadeja (4-0-22-1) and Shardul Thakur (4-0-27-1) came up with economical returns as Mustafizur Rahman and Pathriana also played their part. Deepak Chahar was the lone one to go wicketless as Deshapande walked away with four scalps.
The defeat meant Sunrisers remain winless against the Super Kings at Chepauk.
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
In the moment of crisis, it was Mitchell who 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 the ninth over before Gaikwad ended that over with another disdainful six over mid-wicket. It was the first real show of intent from Chennai’s batsmen and from there on, they were up and running.
As Gaikwad put his head down and calmly went about what he does best – find the gaps and take calculated risks, Mitchell aced the role for which Chennai bought him spending 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 the left-arm spinner straight over his head. Then off Cummins, after shaping to play a scoop, he brought out a reverse-flick to fetch a boundary in the third man region 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 that have made him challenging to score off, Gaikwad made room on the off-side and flicked him over fine-leg. Then as Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivered an innocuous short ball, he deposited it over square-leg. Batting on 80 with 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.
Shivam Dube continued on his merry way. In the 17th over, he hit T Natarajan for two sixes, by standing deep in the crease and converting yorkers into low full-tosses. He would do the same to Cummins and find a boundary soon after clobbering him for a six over long-on. In the circumstances, Unadkat bowled a boundary-less 19th over, conceding only eight runs. In the final over, a four from MS Dhoni and another big hit from Dube powered them to 212/3.
Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 212/3 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 98, Daryl Mitchell 52, Shivam Dube 39 not out) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 all out in 18.5 overs (Aiden Markram 32; Tushar Deshpande 4/27) by 78 runs
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tushar Deshpande were the chief architects of Chennai's 78-run win on Sunday. (PTI) 
Share
