Gaikwad, Mitchell, Deshpande star in huge win
CSK move to No.3 on the table with this 78-run win. They are tied with SRH and LSG on points. We leave you with a teaser from our final report. Thanks for joining us.
Call them conservative, but Chennai Super Kings successfully backed their method despite not being able to defend 210 in their last home match against Lucknow Super Giants. The power-packed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s drought in Chennai continued as they fell short comprehensively despite batting in dewy conditions. The slowest team in the first two overs and the third-slowest in the powerplay, CSK looked like they were playing the same game again: lose their eighth toss in nine matches, lay a cautious platform, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring around a hundred, Shivam Dube pushing them over 200, but it changed in the second innings. CSK must have figured they got done in by excessive dew, a special innings from Marcus Stoinis and some ordinary fielding from themselves the other night, a combination of events that won’t repeat every night. On Sunday, it didn’t, after Tushar Deshpande rocked SRH back with three wickets in the powerplay. Both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma found the sweeper on the off side. The big win took CSK from sixth to third on the points table, tied on points with SRH and LSG. SRH were left with questions around their chasing methods: they have lost only one when defending but won only one when chasing. Their run-rate when chasing falls three points from the 11.74 in the first innings, and the average comes down from nearly 40 to 23.