Chennai Super Kings have registered their third victory on their home turf with some sensational performance from their captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who scored a blistering 67 off 37 balls to steer his side to a five wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Mike Hussey also contributed with the bat as he scored 45 runs. Amit Mishra bowled brilliantly while Karan Sharma too was superb. But performances of Dale Steyn and Darren Sammy hurt SRH very badly as they were nowhere near their best. There were few more positives for SRH as they got Shikhar Dhawan back and that too in a good nick which led them to a competitive total of 159 in their 20 overs.
Here we bring before you the hits and flops from the match between Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Hits
MS Dhoni: Dhoni batted brilliantly once again and went on to score 67 runs off 37 balls which were studded with seven fours and four sixes. His ability to set the innings at his pace makes him the most dangerous batsmen as well as best match-finisher that World Cricket has ever seen. He showed his cool and calm temperament in the initial overs and did the usual damage to the opposition towards the end.
Shikhar Dhawan: Dhawan is back with a bang as he scored a terrific 63 runs off just 45 balls. He scored 10 boundaries in his knock and his hunger for runs was quite clear in the way he galvanized his innings. His stupendous effort took SRH to a comfortable position as they put 159 runs on the board in their 20 overs.
Mike Hussey: Hussey was again at his very best as he went on to score 45 runs in 26 balls. He was thrashing the loose deliveries all over the park and scored five fours and two sixes to give a dazzling start to CSK.
Karan Sharma: Karan Sharma was the real star for SRH as he gave away just eight runs in his four overs. His bowling effort made the significant difference as it pushed CSK back against the wall and with an asking rate of 10 it wasn’t looking that easy for CSK.
Amit Mishra: Mishra capitalised well on the efforts of Karan and took three wickets to keep CSK under that pressure situation. His picked up the wickets of Murali Vijay and Mike Hussey and that made him a difficult bowler but CSK scored as much as 26 runs to pin him down.
Ravichandran Ashwin: Ashwin played his part really well once again as he kept the one end tight as he gave away just 21 runs in his four overs to get the crucial wicket of Amit Mishra who was trying to pace the innings with his aggressive batting.
Mohit Sharma: Sharma was once again brilliant with the ball. He gave some initial breakthroughs as he took the wickets of Quinton de Kock and Cameron White. He ended up with the figures of 2/33 in his four overs.
Flops
Quinton de Kock: He has been very consistent when it comes to failure in his last few games. He has failed to reach even a double figure mark in this edition of Indian Premier League. He should be replaced by Parthiv Patel who has been in much better than form than him.
Cameron White: He was a failure with the bat as well with his captaincy. He just seems to be enjoying the success on Mishra’s brilliant efforts and it’s high-time Kumar Sangakkara takes back the reins once again.
Dale Steyn: Steyn’s repo of being the most economical bowler was damaged quite badly as he was tore apart by Dhoni quite mercilessly. Dhoni smacked 29 runs off 11 balls that he faced off Steyn which ensured that Steyn ends up with the worst figures of 1/45 in his four overs. He kept bowling short ball again and again and Dhoni didn’t mind hitting it out of the ground. His team missed those Yorkers from him that are his trademark.
Darren Sammy: Sammy had a brilliant first over but after that his bowling stats were disturbed quite badly as he ended up giving 31 runs in his three overs. Being an experienced campaigner, a better performance was expected from him but he didn't deliver and SRH paid the price.
Ravindra Jadeja: He remained under used once again as he gave away eight runs in the only over that he bowled and to make his day even worse was his batting effort where he scored just one run. He took the unnecessary risks of smacking the ball but gave a straight forward catch to Amit Mishra who was standing at point.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network
