CHENNAI: A professional display by Chennai Super Kings enabled the hosts to defeat Sun Risers Hyderabad by 78 runs and get their IPL campaign back on track here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
Batting first, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad led by example to make a valuable 98 and lay the platform for a creditable win.
Later, fastbowler Tushar Deshpande, with his fiery first spell, where he accounted for three wickets, broke the back of the top order of the visitors. He ended up with figures of 4 for 27.
Chasing 213 for a win, SRH had a disastrous start. They lost Travis Head and Amolpreet Singh in the second over of their innings, with Deshpande bagging both wickets.
He bowled with a lot of fire and zest. He hit the deck in the right areas and could extract good bounce and carry. High on confidence, Deshpande next foxed Abhishek Sharma with a slower one and all that the SRH batter could do was hole out to Mitchell at deep point.
Ravindra Jadeja joined the party and added to SRH's misery by accounting for the dangerous Nitish Reddy. He foxed Reddy into playing a false shot and the intended pull ended up as a skier, which was neatly held by MS Dhoni. Thus, SRH were reduced to 72 for 4 and from then on, the task became difficult as Ruturaj shuffled his bowlers well and maintained the pressure till the end.
Earlier, half-centuries by Ruturaj Gaikwad (98 off 54 balls) and Daryl Mitchell (52) came in handy for the home team to post a challenging total. The CSK skipper and the Kiwi all-rounder added 107 runs in 64 balls for the second wicket.
Ruturaj was unlucky to miss his century by two runs, but his innings had grace written all over it. He was at his sublime best and played with a lot of responsibility. Such was his knock that, at no point during his innings, Ruturaj tried to throw away his wicket by playing a rash shot. He ensured that he stayed till the end to guide his team to post a challenging total.
Ruturaj's commitment can be best described in the way he handled SRH captain Pat Cummins. Cummins bowled a low full-toss outside off stump, Gaikwad reached out for it and opened the face of the bat to slice it between backward point and short third man.
This was perhaps the shot of the day for it showed the commitment and presence of mind of the CSK skipper. Ruturaj's end came when he went for an ambitious shot off T Natarajan, only to be caught by Nitish Reddy in the deep. By then, he had done his job.
Earlier, put into bat, CSK lost their opener Ajinkya Rahane cheaply. In order to up the strike rate, Rahane played a lofted shot that lacked power and Shahbaz Ahmed took a regulation catch at deep mid-wicket, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar giving the first breakthrough for the visitors.
Cummins' plan and faith actually worked for Bhuvneshwar.
''We're going to bowl. Absolutely, you can see why it's pretty loud here. Boys are pretty pumped up. We've got Bhuvi, who's a very nice new ball bowler; I just fill in wherever required. We're going with one extra batter, Markande misses out. We've always looked to bowl first, maybe dew comes into it later in the evening,'' said Cummins before the match and Bhuvi answered his call by accounting for the former India Test captain.
But Ruturaj who was in sublime form, did not bother and ensured that pressure did not affect his game. He was at ease against both Bhuvi and Shahzbaz Ahmed. He applied himself and used his feet deftly to play the medium pace-spin combo with relish. He notched up effortless boundaries off the duo in front of the wicket to show his class.
When Cummins brought in local lad Natarajan, Ruturaj once again displayed efficient footwork and pulled the left arm medium pacer for a boundary in the fine leg area.
Mitchell joined Ruturaj and he was also judicious in his shot selection. He waited for the right ball to attack and collected boundaries. The six, off Cummins, was a beauty. Mitchell picked a ball that was full and just outside off from Cummins and lofted it straight through the line, over long-off.
In the very same over from the Australian skipper Ruturaj did a 'Mitchell' and pulled Cummins for deep mid-wicket. Their strikes helped the hosts make 82 from nine overs.
As the game progressed, Mitchell grew in confidence and put his height to effective use, like how he once carted Unadkat for a boundary, where the ball raced just above the bowler's head onto the sight screen. But still at the half-way mark, CSK were 15-20 runs short.
From the 12th over onwards, Ruturaj and Mitchell used the long handle and runs came at a fast clip. Mitchell once again showed his intent and class by scooping Cummins over the third man in an innovative way and this boundary ringed the duo's century stand for the second wicket. After a while, Mitchell failed to convert a low full toss from Unadkat and Reddy at deep mid-wicket held on to the catch.
Brief scores: CSK 212/3 in 20 ovs (Gaikwad 98, Mitchell 52, Dube 39 n.o.) bt SRH 134 in 18.5 ovs (Markram 32; Deshpande 4/27, Pathirana 2/17, Rahman 2/19).