Chennai Super Kings 212 for 3 (Gaikwad 98, Mitchell 52, Dube 39*) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 (Markram 32, Deshpande 4-27) by 78 runs
The slowest team in the first two overs and the third-slowest in the powerplay, CSK looked like they were playing the same game again: lose the toss (their eighth lost toss in nine matches), lay a cautious platform, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring around about a hundred, Shivam Dube pushing them over 200… But then it changed in the second innings. CSK must have figured they had got done in by excessive dew, a special innings from Marcus Stoinis and some ordinary fielding from themselves the other night, a combination of events that won’t be repeated every night.
On Sunday, it wasn’t repeated, after Tushar Deshpande rocked SRH with three wickets in the powerplay. Both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma found the sweeper on the off side. The big win took CSK from sixth to third on the points table, tied on points with SRH and LSG. SRH were left with questions around their chasing methods: they have lost only one when defending but won only one when chasing. Their run rate when chasing falls three points from their 11.74 in the first innings, and the average comes down from nearly 40 to 23.
Conservative Super Kings
The CSK openers made only one boundary attempt in the first two overs, and then gradually pushed up, largely thanks to expert gap-finding by Gaikwad. The first eight overs brought CSK just 67 runs, out of which Gaikwad scored 44 off 25 with seven fours.
The middle-overs press
CSK went the first 10 overs of the last match without a six. Here, they hit the first at the start of the ninth over when Daryl Mitchell welcomed Pat Cummins to the bowling crease by off-driving a slower ball over mid-off. In the same over, Gaikwad repeated the dose to get to 51 off 27. CSK’s other end, including extras, had got just 31 off 27 till that point.
However, Mitchell joined the party now, and played a part in keeping CSK going even as Gaikwad managed just 10 off the next 10. In that period, Mitchell made his way to fifty off 29 before holing out to leave CSK at 126 for 3 in 13.3 overs.
The finish
Shivam Dube continued his exceptional season despite good defensive bowling from SRH. He ended up with 39 off 20, hitting four sixes and a four. Gaikwad found a second wind, taking 29 in 10 balls immediately after Mitchell’s dismissal. Towards the end, though, he was gassed and kept mis-hitting everything. The mis-hits kept falling safe, bringing down his strike rate. The 19th over, bowled by Jaydev Unadkat, brought no boundary.
MS Dhoni came out for a customary 5 off 2, and Dube ended with a huge six, but the question remained: had CSK done the right thing by playing in identical fashion to the other night?
The Deshpande blitz
Unlike CSK, Travis Head began with a boundary first ball and a six off the first ball of the next over. Abhishek Sharma matched him with a six off his own. Deshpande, though, came back with a wide slower ball, which Head could send only as far as the sweeper on the off side. Impact Player Anmolpreet Singh fell first ball with a leading edge to one that shaped away.
In his next over, Deshpande had Abhishek caught by the sweeper on the off side again. Abhishek and Head have not put up unbelievable numbers without taking fielders on, but they will be slightly disappointed they both found one of the only two men out.
The middle-overs squeeze
This is where CSK changed their fortunes as compared to the last match. LSG didn’t let the CSK spinners bowl in the last match, especially with the dew. Here Ravindra Jadeja got into his work. He conceded just one boundary in his four overs, bowled on the trot. He and Mustafizur Rahman managed to find just enough grip from the surface. A frustrated Nitish Reddy top-edged a short ball from Jadeja before Matheesha Pathirana broke the stump camera with a laser-guided middle-stump yorker to Aiden Markram.
CSK were right. There wasn’t to be a repeat of a special chase as they closed out efficiently for a 78-run win.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo