IPL 6: Clinical Super Kings breach Sunrisers fortress

Chennai Super Kings 223/3 (Suresh Raina 99*, Hussey 67) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 146/8 (Parthiv Patel 44, Mohit Sharma 2-28) by 77 runs

For scorecard and ball by ball details click here.

A high impact all round performance from Suresh Raina, his second of this IPL, gave Chennai Super Kings a comprehensive win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was a clinical batting performance from the Chennai Super Kings after their poor performance in Mumbai. Murali Vijay finally found his form as he struck three massive sixes of Ishant Sharma’s second over to up the ante. Super Kings had two outstanding partnerships in the middle period of the innings that ultimately helped them to post a monumental total. Suresh Raina batted brilliantly on a perfect batting strip and scored 99*. He stayed there till the end and ensured CSK have posted a massive score. Chennai Super Kings bowlers responded to the total as they completely outclassed the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The wicket at Hyderabad was perfect batting strip. There was a bit of moisture in the wicket and that prompted Sangakkara to bowl first. He was hoping for another low-scoring contest. Steyn and Ishant were expected to strike with the new-ball. But Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay respected Steyn as they saw him off in the first spell. The attack from Murali Vijay started in the fifth over as he clobbered Ishant for three massive sixes in the leg-side. The thought process was completely missing from Ishant. He was constantly bowling the length deliveries. He didn’t attempt a bouncer or a slow delivery.

Perera provided the breakthrough for the Sunrisers Hyderabad as he grabbed the wicket of Murali Vijay in the sixth over. The wicket of Murali Vijay didn’t affect the scoring rate as Hussey and Raina kept the scoreboard ticking. Hussey has been the consistent performer for Super Kings and once again he showed his master-class against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He and Raina counter-attacked the two leg spinners that ultimately had Sunrisers Hyderabad on the backfoot. Mishra attempted the googly on many occasions, but didn’t get the line right.

Chennai Super Kings, at the half-way stage, scored 91/1. In the next 10 overs, they scored 132 runs for the loss of two wickets. This clearly shows that Super Kings were in control of the innings. Also, a brilliant 25-run over off Ishant Sharma took the Super Kings score past 200-odd runs. Ishant Sharma was under tremendous pressure as he was not getting the length right. The first ball off the 18th over was smacked for a glorious four through the covers by Raina. The second delivery also went for four and that forced Kumar Sangakkara to have two men deep on the off-side. But the third delivery was around the pads and Suresh Raina clobbered it over deep midwicket for a superb six. He also bowled a no-ball and that was too costly as Suresh Raina struck the free-hit delivery for a boundary through the covers. Ishant has got the experience of bowling at death overs as he had played lot of ODI Cricket for India. But on this occasion, he failed.

Sunrisers Hyderabad would have been extremely disappointed as they leaked too many runs at the death overs. They desperately required a flying start at the top of the order and required Kumar Sangakkara to play big innings. He hasn’t been in best of form with the bat. Parthiv Patel gave some hope for Sunrisers Hyderabad as he struck a quickfire 44 off just 30 balls. But after his wicket, Sunrisers Hyderabad were nowhere in the game and finally ended up losing by a big margin.