It was another blistering innings from a man in form. Ambati Rayudu scored the fourth century of the Indian Premier League 2018 as Chennai Super Kings handed Sunrisers Hyderabad their third defeat of the campaign. Ton-up Rayudu fashioned CSK victory over SRH with a stunning unbeaten 100 runs.
CSK raced to 16 points this season and are on the brink of qualification for the playoffs.
A power-packed innings by the senior player, who celebrated his call-up to the Indian ODI side with a fabulous piece of work in Pune. SRH put up 179/4 after another twin half-centuries by Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Kane Williamson. But the hosts surged past the line after Shane Watson (57) and Rayudu made sure there were no hiccups.
SRH bowlers were put in the mat and after being so successful throughout the season, they were off colour on Sunday. The ball didn’t swing at all and that took a lot of sting out of the SRH attack. Suddenly it looked like an even better surface to bat.
Both teams have two more matches left in their IPL group stage campaign.
It's all over here in Pune as the @ChennaiIPL beat #SRH by 8 wickets with six balls to spare.#CSKvSRH pic.twitter.com/hzV3Ml47mE
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 13, 2018
Here is the match in numbers.
- CSK completed the double over SRH in IPL 2018.
- This was CSK’s third win against SRH in Pune.
- In an overall 8 matches, CSK notched their sixth victory over SRH.
- The hosts ended SRH’s six-match winning run this season.
- Kane Williamson notched his seventh fifty in IPL 2018, which is the highest.
- Ambati Rayudu became the fourth player to cross 500+ runs in IPL 2018.
- Rayudu also notched his maiden IPL ton.
- Out of the four centuries scored this IPL, three have come against SRH.
- Shikhar Dhawan and Williamson shared their third century stand of the season.
- MS Dhoni (20*) need 20 more runs to complete 4000 runs in IPL career.
- Shane Watson went past 3000 IPL runs. He has 3046 runs in 146 matches.
- This was also his 16th fifty in a glittering IPL career.
Rayudu a joy to watch
If Williamson and Dhawan lit Pune up, Rayudu wasn’t there to remain quiet. He put up an even better show and deserved a century. Rayudu has donned the opening role so well and the 134-run opening stand with Watson hampered every hope of SRH. The duo have been in supreme form with the bat and have amassed 959 runs between them. Such is the power!
Rayudu a contender for the Orange Cap, reached 535 runs at an impressive strike-rate of 152.85. The bagful of runs will bolster his confidence going into the ODI series against England in July. Rayudu smashed seven fours and seven sixes to dish out a perfect piece of work. Shakib Al Hasan and Siddarth Kaul were targeted the most as Rayudu made merry.
CSK seniors a famed bunch
Watson needs to be lauded for playing according to the situation and giving the side the tempo in the chase. His 57 runs off 35 balls saw him get to 424 runs this season. The veteran has shown that he is a ruler in this format and his bags of experience brings so much to the side.
Dwayne Bravo too was vital with the ball and got the important wicket of Shikhar Dhawan. With the southpaw running away with the tie, his wicket in the 15th over gave CSK the impetus to close in well. One should also not forget the contribution of MS Dhoni. Another vital 20 runs with the bat. What bodes well for CSK is three of their batsmen are in top 10 in the scoring charts.
Dhawan-Williamson duo a steal
If one thing that worked well for SRH in Pune was the lethal duo of Dhawan and Williamson. They left over from Delhi and took the form to Pune. A solid 123-run stand for the second wicket gave SRH the runs they got to in the end. The duo were classy and played through the ground often being involved in risk-free cricket.
A lot of shout goes to Williamson for so smoothly following in the shoes of David Warner. His seventh fifty this season matched with Warner, who took the lead in 2015. In their title-winning campaign, Warner smashed nine fifties and Kane could go on and get past that figure.
With Williamson carrying on right from the beginning, Dhawan’s form now has come at the right time and it will do them a world of good going into the last phase of the IPL.