CHENNAI: A punishing half-century by Ishan Kishan (70) and a valuable 47 by Heinrich Klassen propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to a five-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in the IPL at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Monday. With this victory, Both SRH and Gujarat Titans have qualified to the playoffs. Only one playoff spot remains vacant. After this defeat, CSK slipped to sixth in the points table. In SRH’s chase of 181, Ishan and Klassen added 75 runs in 41 balls for the third wicket to set up a solid platform for the middle order batters to flourish. Kishan was the aggressive one of the duo, picking the length early and scoring boundaries at will. When Klaasen looked well set to play a big innings he was brilliantly stumped by Sanju Samson.
Then, Kishan stitched small partnerships with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Salil Arora and put Hyderabad closer to victory. Ishan's innings came to an end when he played a rash shot off Anshul Kamboj to be caught by Urvil Patel at long off. With six runs required off nine balls, Salil Arora and Smaran R finished the job without fuss. SRH’s chase did not start well as impact sub Travis Head did not stay there for long. However, Abhishek Sharma and Kishan kept the run-rate at a healthy rate and ensured their chase never derailed. After Abhishek’s dismissal, Klaasen came in and played his part in helping his team win.
Earlier, Dewald Brevis’s 44 and Shivam Dube’s 26 lower down the order helped Chennai Super Kings post 180/7. The duo added 59 runs in 38 balls for the fifth wicket. Brevis’s knock came to an end when he was castled by Eshan Malinga in the 18th over. For the visitors, skipper Cummins (3/28) shone as he put his experience to effective use. Opting to bat first, CSK got off to an excellent start with Sanju Samson. He attacked an erratic Nitish from the word-go. He struck him for a six and two boundaries in the very first over of the game with precise timing and footwork to the delight of the crowd. In the very next over Samson struck three delicate boundaries off Praful Hinge to show his intention.Seeing the way that the Kerala-wicketkeeper was going with tongs and hammer, Cummins brought himself to the attack. Samson (27) was done in by a change of pace as he went for a heave off a length delivery from the Aussie.
Samson failed to connect as expected and the thick edge was held by Ishan Kishan behind the stumps. Then, Cummins brought both Sakib and Hinge to apply brakes on CSK’s run. Sakib accounted for Patel. The Baroda-born player failed to read a slower one that kept a bit low to be castled. Thus CSK were reduced to 48 for two. Thereafter, skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kartik Sharma played cautiously for a while in order to avoid further damage. This put the hosts on track and the run rate improved.
Cummins, assessing the situation, brought himself back into the attack. That brought immediate impact. Kartik fell to his bait and hit the slower ball straight to Nitish Reddy at sweeper cover. The situation was such that Ruturaj had to play anchor at one end and allow the batter at the other end to attack. After a while he tried to go big against Cummins but failed to connect and the ball hit the toe of the bat and went to Malinga at mid wicket. Brief scores: CSK 180/7 in 20 ovs (Brevis 44, Dube 26; Cummins 3/28, Sakib 2/28) lost to SRH 181/5 in 19 ovs (Ishan 70, Klaasen 47; Mukesh 2/36).