Chennai Super Kings 212 for 3 (Gaikwad 98, Mitchell 52, Dube 39*) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 (Markram 32, Deshpande 4-27) by 78 runs

CSK, the slowest team in the first two overs and the third slowest in the powerplay, looked like they were playing the same game again: they lost the toss (their eighth lost toss in nine matches), laid a cautious platform , captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scored. around a hundred, Shivam Dube pushed them to over 200… But then things changed in the second innings. CSK must have thought they were done for by over-dew, a special innings from Marcus Stoinis and some ordinary fielding from themselves the other night, a combination of events that will not be repeated every night.

On Sunday, there was no repeat, after Tushar Deshpande rattled SRH for three wickets in the powerplay. Both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma found the sweeper on the opposite side. The big win took CSK from sixth to third place in the points table, level on points with SRH and LSG. SRH were left with questions about their chasing methods: they only lost one when defending but won only one when chasing. Their run rate when chasing drops three points from its 11.74 in the first innings, and the average drops from almost 40 to 23.

Conservative Super Kings

The CSK openers made just one boundary attempt in the first two overs, and then gradually moved forward, largely thanks to Gaikwad’s expert gap-finding. The first eight overs gave CSK just 67 runs, of which Gaikwad scored 44 for 25 with seven fours.

Ruturaj Gaikwad reached fifty off 27 balls with a six•BCCI

The intermediate press

CSK went through the first 10 overs of the last match without a six. Here, they got their first at the start of the ninth over when Daryl Mitchell welcomed Pat Cummins to the bowling crease by bowling a slower ball at mid-off. In the same over, Gaikwad repeated the dose to reach 51 for 27. CSK’s other end, including the extras, had managed only 31 for 27 till then.

However, Mitchell joined the party now and played an important role in holding CSK even as Gaikwad managed just 10 off the next 10. In that period, Mitchell reached fifty for 29 before holing out to leave CSK at 126 off 3 in 13.3 overs.

The end

Shivam Dube continued his exceptional season despite good defensive bowling from SRH. He finished with 39 for 20, hitting four sixes and a four. Gaikwad found a second wind, taking 29 off 10 balls immediately after Mitchell’s dismissal. However, towards the end, he was exhausted and kept failing at everything. The errors continued to fall safely, which reduced his hitting rate. The 19th, released by Jaydev Unadkat, brought no limits.

MS Dhoni came out with a customary 5 for 2, and Dube finished with a huge six, but the question remained: had CSK done the right thing by playing identically to the other night?

The bombing deshpande

Unlike CSK, Travis Head started with a first ball on the boundary and a six off the first ball of the next over. Abhishek Sharma matched it with a six of his own. Deshpande, however, came back with a slower wide ball, which Head could only send to the sweeper on the off side. Impact player Anmolpreet Singh dropped the first ball with a leading edge towards a receding one.

In his next over, Deshpande again had Abhishek caught by the sweeper on the off side. Abhishek and Head haven’t put up incredible numbers without facing the fielders, but they will be a little disappointed that they both found one of the only two men out.

The intermediates press

Here CSK changed their luck compared to the last match. In the last match, LSG did not let CSK’s spinners fall, especially with the dew. Here Ravindra Jadeja got to work. He conceded just one boundary in his four overs, bowled on the trot. He and Mustafizur Rahman managed to find enough grip on the surface. A frustrated Nitish Reddy edged a short ball from Jadeja before Matheesha Pathirana broke the chamber of the stump with a laser-guided mid-stump yorker towards Aiden Markram.

CSK was right. There was no repeat of a special chase as they closed efficiently for a 78-run victory.