Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1 of the IPL at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. The clash marks the beginning of the playoffs with the winner of the tie advancing directly to the finals.
Chennai skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. Sunrisers got off to the worst possible start with Shikhar Dhawan being dismissed with the very first ball of the match by Deepak Chahar. Shreevats Goswami departed soon after for 12 runs before skipper Kane Williamson was dismissed for 25 runs.
At the end of the 12th over, Hyderabad had struggled to reach 69-5 with Shakib Al Hasan and Manish Pandey also departing cheaply as Chennai took complete control. It was West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite who finally provided the Sunrisers’ innings with some impetus with a useful cameo towards the death. Brathwaite remained unbeaten on 43 (29) with the help of four sixes as Hyderabad finished on 139-7 in their 20 overs.
In reply, Shane Watson fell for a duck in the very first over to Bhuvneshwar Kumar before pacer Siddharth Kaul took two wickets in two balls in the fourth over to reduce Chennai to 24-3. Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan then bowled Dhoni through his gates as Sunrisers gained the upped hand in the clash.
In the end, Faf du Plessis pulled a rabbit out of the hat for Chennai as his unbeaten 67 (42) led Dhoni’s men to a stunning two-wicket victory. The South African found some able support from Thakur who scored an unbeaten 15 off just five balls as Chennai sealed the place in the finals with five balls to spare.
