Abhishek’s slower balls, fireworks help Sunrisers’ CSK

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Alastair Cook announces retirement from professional cricket


Sunrisers Hyderabad 166 for 4 (Markram 50, Abhishek 37, Head 31, Moeen 2-23) beat Chennai Super Kings 165 for 5 (Dube 45, Rahane 35, Bhuvneshwar 1-28, Cummins 1-29) by six wickets

Sunrisers Hyderabad learned the conditions quicker than Chennai Super Kings on a black ground surface and claimed their second consecutive home win. In the absence of Mustafizur Rahman, who had returned to Bangladesh to process his US visa for the upcoming T20 World Cup, and Matheesha Pathirana, who is suffering from a problem, a depleted CSK suffered their second consecutive defeat on the road.

Last week, Hyderabad had bowled a red-dirt pitch that produced a contest of 277 for 3 against 246 for 5. Friday’s bowling was much slower and Sunrisers’ seamers used it to their advantage by bowling one cutter after another. After Pat Cummins and company restricted CSK to 165 for 5, Sunrisers smashed 78 for 1 in the powerplay alone, with Abhishek Sharma making noise on 37 of those runs, off just 12 balls.

CSK had scored 30 runs less in their powerplay and their batting machine also shut down in the arduous overs.

The Sunrisers finally completed their chase with six wickets in hand and almost two overs to spare, Aiden Markram doing the heavy lifting with a 36-ball 50.

Dube does Dube things

Rachin Ravindra was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 12 off nine balls in the fourth over. Ruturaj Gaikwad got a start but left-arm finger bowler Shahbaz Ahmed had him caught for 26 off 21 balls.

Ajinkya Rahane hit Cummins and Bhuvneshwar over boundaries in the powerplay but struggled to put the ball away once it became softer and the field extended in the middle.

Shivam Dube Bowled The Sunrisers Spinners But The Rest Of The Csk Batting Struggled On A Slow Pitch.

Shivam Dube bowled the Sunrisers spinners but the rest of the CSK batting struggled on a slow pitch.•AFP/Getty Images

Shivam Dube, however, immediately got to work against the effects. He bowled the third ball he faced, from Shahbaz, for six and scored 25 off his first ten balls, from Shahbaz and Mayank Markande.

Dube also fielded T Natarajan, who was returning from injury, for six consecutive sixes before Cummins stopped him for 45 off 24 balls. The Sunrisers captain hid a slower short ball away from Dube’s swinging arc and made him catch backwards.

SRH pins CSK

CSK could only score 50 runs in their last seven overs. Cummins, Natarajan and Unadkat continued to gain pace with the ball. CSK’s powerful batsmen failed to find any rhythm that night.

Rahane was beaten by a slower delivery of 105 kmph, while Mitchell fell to a Natarajan delivery that stopped on the field. Ravindra Jadeja’s shot on the track, smashing four off Unadkat’s 111 km/h cutter, was just an aberration.

The decibel levels soared when MS Dhoni came out to bat at number 7, ahead of Moeen Ali, with just three balls left in CSK’s innings. But even he could only manage one out of every two balls.

Abhishek Sharma Played 12 Balls And Hit Seven Of Them For Fours Or Sixes.

Abhishek Sharma played 12 balls and hit seven of them for fours or sixes.•AFP/Getty Images

Header, Abhishek breaks the power play.

With the goal in front of them and knowing that pitching would get even slower later that night, the Sunrisers maximized the power play.

As per ESPNcricinfo records, Sunrisers attempted to hit 16 balls in the powerplay to the boundary. CSK, on ​​the other hand, had only managed to send eight balls to the boundary during that phase.

Travis Head stayed on the leg side and crossed Deepak Chahar and Tushar Deshpande for offside. He finished with 31 off 24 balls. He could have been dismissed for 0 in the first over if Moeen had not dropped him.

Abhishek faced only half as many balls as Head but made a bigger impact, bowling 37 at a strike rate of 308.33. Twenty-seven of those runs came in the first over from left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary, who bowled like someone playing his first competitive game since December 2022.

After Head and Abhishek departed, Markram controlled the chase for half a century. Moeen caught Markram (50) and Shahbaz (18) lbw with the old ball but it was too late for CSK. The dawns had already inflicted irreparable damage on the power play.

Deivarayan Muthu is Deputy Editor of ESPNcricinfo