With a six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday (17th April), David Warner and Johnny Bairstow gave Sunrisers Hyderabad a solid half-century.
Chennai was without MS Dhoni, who was excluded due to a rigid bench, leaving his 121-game streak for the franchisee. Stand-in captain Suresh Raina won the toss and opted to bat, before he fell, Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis gave Chennai a solid start. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and made 132 runs in 5 overs in their 20 overs.
In reply, Warner (25-ball 50) and Bairstow (44-ball 61 *), who made a big chunk of scoring for his team, was on it again and left the work of 3.1 overs for Hyderabad.
With four wins with its name, Hyderabad is currently at number 5. Meanwhile, in spite of defeat, Chennai still topped up with 14 points in nine matches.
Earlier, Watson and du Plessis started slowly and scored 15 runs without loss at the end of the four overs, before they speeded Sandeep Sharma out for 12 runs. Du Plessis scored 4 and 6 in the next over of Khalil Ahmed (1 for 22 runs) and ensured that Chennai remained behind the wicket for only the second time this season at the end of the Powerplay.
Du Plessis continued the attack and used his feet to take Shahbah Nadeem. However, it was a left-handed spinner, who scalped Watson for 29-ball 31 and scored 79 runs. This was completed when the hell became loose because Vijay Shankar was out of one end at the ball of du Plessis. Du Plessis scored 45 runs off 31 balls with three fours and several sixes.
The guest had no other choice but to make an innings, but Rashid Khan had other ideas. The legspinner framed Raina (13) and Kedar Jadhav (1) with a floppy legbreak and the googly to replace Chennai's batting lineup, instead of four delivery, gave the googles respectively. Rashid did not give anything during his spell and ended up with figures of 17 for 2.
Sam Billings also came out without any contributions as Chennai lost five wickets in 22 overs and reduced to 5-5. Ambati Rayudu (21-ball 25 *) and Ravindra Jadeja (20-ball 10 *) Chowk. Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Co., Chennai's last few overs have been restricted to a lower right angle
In order to make some pressure on the domestic team, Chennai needed beginners wickets but Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur struggled to correct their line and length, and Warner and Bairstow took the most from it. In the first four overs, both of them scored seven fours and Hyderabad scored 44 without loss.
Raina was forced to introduce Imran Tahir in the fifth over, but even he had to face the wrath of Warner's bat. This left-handed player welcomed the legspinner with a four-round slogan. Warner made three in three and continued the rampage in the next over and also completed his half-century on just 24 balls. Eventually after 10 boundaries, Warner made a mistake and gave easy catch to du Plessis on mid-place.
With 68 runs on board at the end of six overs, it seemed that Hyderabad would run away with the game, but Tahir sent Kane Williamson back for 3 to keep her side in the game. It was Warner's innings that actually pushed run-rate out of the equation, and allowed Bayerstow and Vijay to remain vigilant against Tahir and Jadeja.
Bairstow finally opened his shoulders against Karn Sharma and he got him to deep mid wicket on two mid-wicket. However, Tahir continued to fight and keep the wicket, this time of Vijay was caught for 7. It was caught Despite being smoky on 14 runs in his first over, Tahir got 2 wickets for 20 runs.
Although Bairstow batted till the end and brought curtains with six sixes under the ground.
