Sunrisers Hyderabad outsmart Chennai Super Kings by 10 runs in thrilling IPL match

Eshan Malinga's excellent bowling performance guided Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 10-run victory over Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match. Despite a strong fight from CSK, led by Mhatre and Klaasen, SRH managed to win with key breakthroughs

Hyderabad: Medium-pacer Eshan Malinga proved to be the match-winner (4-0-29-3) as Sunrisers Hyderabad recorded their third consecutive win, outsmarting Chennai Super Kings by 10 runs in the IPL league match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Saturday.

---

(Photo: Surya Sridhar)

Chasing 195, CSK lost momentum midway primarily due to some brilliant catching.

Nitish Kumar Reddy dismissed Sanju Samson (7) with his first ball in the second over of the innings, and then was unfortunate to see Heinrich Klaasen fail to latch on to a difficult chance in the deep when Ayush Mhatre mistimed a lofted stroke in the same over.

However, after that, Mhatre launched a brilliant counter-attack which delighted the CSK fans, with the sea of yellow jerseys dominating the stands.

But Nitish struck again – Mhatre (30, 13b, 5×4, 1×6), who was just then treated for cramps, managed to merely hit one to extra-cover where Klaasen took a brilliant catch, leaping to his left (66/2 in 4.4 overs).

Sunrisers were truly back in the game when pacer Eshan Malinga bounced out CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (19) to make it 66/3 in 5.1 overs.

Sarfaraz Khan (25, 19b, 3×4), who looked good, whipped Malinga one-handed only to be caught at deep square-leg (112/4 in 10.4 overs). Then, left-arm spinner Shivang Kumar lured the dangerous Dewald Brevis (0) to hit straight to long-off (113/5 in 11.4 overs).

Young fast bowler Sakib Hussain struck the decisive blow when he cleaned up the hard-hitting Shivam Dube (21, 16b, 1×4, 1×6) with a yorker to make it 154/7 in 16.5 overs.

(Photo: Surya Sridhar)

Abhishek, Klaasen shine

Earlier, half-centuries by explosive opener Abhishek Sharma and a belligerent Heinrich Klaasen helped SRH, put in to bat, set up a challenging target of 195.

(Photo: Surya Sridhar)

Abhishek made serious amends for the first-ball duck in the previous match with his trademark shots to upset the CSK gameplan of preferring to start with off-spinner Matthew Short. He hit him for three fours and two sixes in the fifth over.

In the sixth over, out-of-sorts Head (23, 20b, 3×4, 1×6) perished, hitting a harmless full toss from pacer Mukesh Choudhary straight to mid-off, and on the next ball, captain Ishan Kishan went for a first-ball duck, mistiming a lofted shot to be caught at mid-off (75/2 in 6 overs).

Abhishek (59, 22b, 6×4, 4×6), after hitting a six over covers off Overton, just stood up to dabble on off-stump of the next ball in the eighth over. Even as Overton was walking back to his run-up, wicketkeeper Sanju Samson insisted and earned a successful review for a caught-behind decision (93/3 in 8 overs).

Sunrisers eventually managed to score 194/9 in 20 overs, thanks largely to Klaasen showing his class again with his 10th IPL fifty (59, 39b, 6×4, 2×6).

Three-wicket hauls by Jamie Overton and Anshul Kamboj, now ‘Purple Cap’ owner, ensured that SRH was restricted to 194/9 in 20 overs.