CSK blows in Abhishek’s storm, Hyderabad wins the match by six wickets

Hyderabad (Uttam Hindu News): Riding on the storm of young left-handed opener Abhishek, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Chennai Super Kings by six wickets with 11 balls remaining at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday. After restricting Chennai to 165/5 in 20 overs on a slow pitch, Hyderabad achieved the target of 166 runs for four wickets in 18.1 overs.

Abhishek, who came to open with impact player Travis Head (31), scored 37 runs in just 12 balls with four sixes and three fours. By the time he was caught by Ravindra Jadeja on the fourth ball of the third over off Deepak Chahar, Hyderabad had scored 46 runs. After this the rest of the batsmen achieved the target comfortably. Aiden Markram played an inning of 50 (in 36 balls). Shahbaz Ahmed scored 18 runs. Heinrich scored 10 unbeaten runs. Opening his hand at the last moment, Nitish Reddy played a quick inning of 14 runs in eight balls. He hit a four and a six in his short innings. For Chennai, Moeen Ali got Shahbaz and Markram out LBW.

Earlier, Hyderabad bowlers did not try to accelerate the old ball much. Due to this, the ball was not hitting the bat properly which was making it difficult to play shots. Despite having the wicket in hand, Chennai batsmen could score only 38 runs in the last five overs. Captain Pat Cummins used seven bowlers. Shivam Dubey scored the highest score of 45 runs (in 24 balls) for Chennai which included two fours and four sixes. Bowling first, fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar got some early swing and took his first wicket of IPL 2024 by getting Rachin Ravindra caught at mid-on in the fourth over.

Ajinkya Rahane scored 35 runs in 30 balls and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 26 runs in 21 balls. Together they took the team’s score to 54/1 in seven overs. CSK suffered a blow on the first ball of the eighth over when Gaikwad was out to long on off the bowling of Shahbaz Ahmed. Shivam Dubey performed brilliantly against the spinners and hit sixes and fours to Ahmed, after which Mayank Markande also showed the way to the boundary.

In his fast innings, Dubey thrilled everyone by hitting two consecutive sixes off Tee Natarajan over mid-wicket. Rahane held the other end. Dubey was caught at backward point on a slow bouncer outside the off stump from Cummins. Rahane was also caught at backward point off the ball of Jaydev Unadkat. In the last over, Daryl Mitchell was caught out at long on off the bowling of Natarajan.