MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings returned to winning ways in the IPL 2024 as they defeated SunRisers Hyderabad by 78 runs. After two successive losses, CSK faced a mini slump but the defending champions stopped a marauding SRH with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Daryl Mitchell coming out all guns blazing as CSK puck up a 212-run total. In reply, SRH were all out for 134. During the match a MS Dhoni could be seen setting the field on a couple of occasion. On one such instance, Dhoni instructed Daryl Mitchell to move a bit. What followed was the New Zealand star catching Travis Head off Tushar Deshpande's bowling. The camera then showed SRH over Kavya Maran really disappointed as Head fell on 13 off 7 balls.
Pat Cummins, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper, had no qualms in admitting that acing the chases is an aspect they have to work upon after losing to Chennai Super Kings by 78 runs.
On a dry MA Chidambaram Stadium pitch, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad fell two runs short of becoming the second batter to hit back-to-back IPL centuries, while Daryl Mitchell got his maiden fifty in the tournament as the duo carried the hosts' to a huge 212/3.
In reply, SRH, who elected to bowl first due to the dew factor, were never in it to chase it down and were eventually bowled out for 134 in 18.5 overs, which is also their second straight attempt over not acing a batting second innings.
Deshpande struck thrice in power-play to pick IPL-best figures of 4-22, while Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman (two wickets each), Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur (one scalp each) were also amongst the wicket-takers for CSK.
"It's hard to put a finger on it. There's nothing really that went to plan here. It feels pretty well suited for chasing, but it hasn't come off yet, so we have something to work on. There's definitely dew here; I haven't seen much so far anywhere else in other venues, but we didn't make the most of it. They bowled really well, so the dew didn't factor in as much as we would have liked," said Cummins in a post-match press conference.
With IANS inputs