Those hoping for twists and turns akin to an Alfred Hitchcock novel would have been disappointed with Sunrisers Hyderabad’s seven-wicket defeat against the Chennai Super Kings in an IPL 2023 match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday night.
Ravindra Jadeja’s 3 for 22 set up a CSK win that was bookended by some coruscating strokeplay.
Defending a modest 134, the Sunrisers bowlers could not muster any venom as Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway pranced to 60 after the first six overs.
Enveloped by the ear-splitting hoots, whistles, and cheers, Conway hit four fours and a six in Marco Jansen’s third to shrink the target in no time, and his unbeaten 57-ball 77 eventually condemned SRH to its fourth defeat of the season.
Earlier, after the Super Kings elected to bowl, SRH’s innings was a typical spin challenge. Abhishek Sharma, a left-hander, opened for Sunrisers instead of Mayank Agarwal in an attempt to shield Harry Brook in case the host bowled more spin up front.
CSK, on the other hand, began with left-arm quick Akash Singh and right-arm seamer Tushar Deshpande, who sought to bowl back of a length to exploit the longer square boundary on one side.
MS Dhoni knew Brook liked to pepper the region between cover-point and backward point when he was given room, so he positioned Gaikwad there. That’s where he got caught for a 13-ball 18 off the bowling of Akash, who took 1 for 17 in the PowerPlay.
Maheesh Theekshana bowled the sixth over and went for 10, as Abhishek demonstrated his skill against spin by mixing caution with aggression.
He never played a crude shot prior to botching an attempted pull and getting caught off Jadeja to leave SRH 76/2 after 10.
It was all downhill from there. After making only the smallest of contributions, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, and Mayank, who batted at 6, all fell in three consecutive overs as Dhoni recreated the windswept romance of yesteryear, orchestrating a spin-choke on a tacky Chepauk track.
The three CSK spinners conceded 67 runs between them and took a combined four wickets as SRH rued its failure to convert starts.
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