Young Amritsar-born Abhishek Sharma struck a superbly paced half-century and played a major role in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s comprehensive eight-wicket victory over defending IPL champions Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.
Sharma stroked his way to a highly impressive 75 off just 50 balls and also featured in two crucial partnerships, 89 with his captain and fellow-opener Kane Williamson (32) and 56 for the second wicket with Rahul Tripathi, who remained unconquered on 39 off 15 balls in a team total of 155 for 2.
The solid batting effort from the Sunrisers, that helped them overhaul the target with 14 balls to spare, came in the wake of some impressive bowling display in the first half of the game that restricted the CSK to a modest score of 154 for 7.
The victory was the first in three games by 2016 champions Sunrisers while the Super Kings suffered a fourth straight defeat and have a mountain left to climb in their effort to make the playoffs.
Sharma, 21, who was a member of India’s 2018 Under-19 World Cup-winning team, struck three sixes and five fours in his excellent knock and the pick of those were the two sixes struck off the back foot over the straight field off England pacer Chris Jordan and left-arm pacer Mukesh Choudhary.
Kane plays second fiddle
Sharma and Williamson, who played second fiddle in their opening stand, helped SRH race to 75-0 in 11 overs.
Even though the New Zealand captain departed in the 13th over, the youngster from Punjab found another able partner in Tripathi, who struck two sixes and five fours in his breezy knock, to take the Sunrisers to the doorsteps of victory.
Sharma, who had played two IPL games in 2018 for Delhi Daredevils, fell while trying to hit yet another maximum before Tripathi, with Nicholas Pooran at the other end, hit the unimpressive Jordan for a six and two fours in the 18th over to hasten the Super Kings’ defeat.
Earlier, asked to take first strike, the Super Kings couldn’t get the fluency going in their batting effort, especially as they lost both their openers before the end of the Powerplay period with only 36 on the board.
Robin Uthappa (15) was caught in giving the charge to the first ball from lanky SRH off spinner Washington Sundar, who picked up another wicket for fine end-of-innings figures of 2 for 21.
The other opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad (16), who came into the game with a paltry eight runs in three matches to his credit, looked in better touch, but he too didn’t last long. He was beaten and bowled by T Natarajan with his first ball in the fifth over of the innings.
Sundar show
A stand of 62 runs in 8.2 overs between Moeen Ali, who made 48 in 35 balls inclusive of two out of three sixes in the entire innings, and Ambati Rayudu, who made a run-a-ball 27 with four fours, revived the sagging CSK innings and took their score close to the 100 mark.
This partnership was broken by Sundar at 98 who had Rayudu caught at wide long-on. Then Ali, guided South Africa’s left-arm pacer Marco Jansen straight to fly slip after having struck a six off the previous ball.
Skipper Ravindra Jadeja, who scored 23 off 15 balls with a six and two fours, gave the stuttering innings some late fillip after Shivam Dube, the team’s leading run-getter this season, and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni both fell cheaply.
Jadeja struck Natarajan for a six and four in the bowler’s last over before being caught in the outfield off Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. Apart from Sundar, Natarajan bowled impressively, except in the last over, for figures of 2 for 30.
2
No. of times CSK have lost four consecutive matches; both times they were not led by MS Dhoni. The other instance came in 2010 when they won the title
Brief scores
CSK 154-7 (M Ali 48; W Sundar 2-21, T Natarajan 2-30) lost to SRH 155-2 in 17.4 overs (A Sharma 75, R Tripathi 39*, K Williamson 32) by 8 wkts
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