Sunrisers Hyderabad beat ‘Big Brother’ Chennai Super Kings comfortably on Friday night to jump to fifth on the points table and brighten their prospects in the IPL. Having restricted the visitors to a modest 165 for 5, the hosts romped home in 18.1 overs with six wickets in hand at the raucous Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.Captain Aiden Markram led the Sunrisers’ batting chart with a fine 50 in 36 balls, followed by handy contributions from the top order.Sunrisers opener Travis Head was dropped by Moeen Ali at first slip off Deepak Chahar on the second ball of the innings with nothing on board. The Australian made the most of it and set about scoring runs, at a brisk pace. He knocked the stuffing out ofthe yellows to leave them pale before falling for 31 after putting his side well on course for victory mid-way through the innings.From the other end, Abhishek Sharma got cracking. The Southpaw regularly smacked the ball over the field to fire a 12-ball 37 that included three fours and four sixes as Sun sped towards the target.Mukesh Choudhary, who came in as an impact player for CSK’s batting hero Shivam Dube, was awfully off-target, conceding 27 runs in the only over he bowled, second of the innings.Earlier, Chennai started well but clever bowling by Pat Cummins and Co. slowed them down towards the end. With six wickets in hand, the visitors could only manage 38 runs in the last five overs for the loss of Daryl Mitchell’s wicket, the fall of which triggered the loudest cheer, for it meant Mahendra Singh Dhoni would walk in to bat, with just three balls remaining.The Superstar strode in to some extra light generated by the flashlights of fans’ phones, played and missed the first ball he faced from left-arm pacer T. Natarajan, then couldn’t quite pull off a pull that fetched him just a single to finish unbeaten on 1.Chennai were off the blocks quick but lost their first man when Rachin Ravindra tried to force the pace and skied a catch to Aiden Markram on the inner circle to give Bhuvneshwar Kumar his first wicket this IPL season.Ruturaj Gaikwad sent Bhuvneshwar for a straight six on the last ball of power-play, after which Chennai were 48 for 1. Very soon, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed sent back the CSK captain with the first ball he bowled, Abdul Samad pouching the loop at long-on. Dube was the dasher, crashing the ball about to score 45 in just 24 balls that included two boundaries and four soaring sixes. However, for all the flurry of shots he played around the wicket, the left-hander fell rather tamely, done in by a slow bouncer from Cummins which he played straight into the hands of Bhuvneshwar at backward point.One-down bat Ajinkya Rahane too chipped in a 30-ball 35 while Ravindra Jadeja’s unbeaten 31 was the third best for CSK.
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