Hyderabad: A sensational unbeaten knock of 99 runs off 52 balls by Suresh Raina helped Chennai Super Kings thrash Sunrisers Hyderabad by 77 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Wednesday. With this win Chennai also became the first team to reach the play offs in IPL season 6.
Raina smashed 11 fours and three sixes in his knock while Michael Hussey complimented him well by scoring 67 runs off just 42 balls. The duo added 133 runs for the second wicket that steered CSK to a mammoth total of 223 runs. Ishant Sharma turned out to the the most expensive bowler of the IPL, giving away 66 runs in his four overs.
Later the Chennai pace bowlers did well to restrict the opposition under 150.
Chasing the target of 224 was always going to be a difficult task for Sunrisers Hyderabad and they were in for a shock when their in-form batsman Shikhar Dhawan was run out in the second over of the innings. But Parthiv Patel had different plans as he counter attacked and kept the hopes alive for Hyderabad. All he needed was a partner who could rotate the strike to keep the score board ticking. But Kumar Sangakkara and Hanuma Vihari could not last long and departed after adding just three runs each to the score and soon SRH was reduced to 3/55 in 8 overs.
Darren Sammy joined Parthiv Patel but the asking rate and the target were too much for SRH and they soon crumbled under pressure. Sammy and Patel were dismissed by Mohit Sharma in the 9th over. Sammy scored 7 runs whereas Patel smashed 44 runs off 30 balls.
Thisara Perera and Karan Sharma tried their best to knit a partnership and added 35 runs for the sixth wicket. But after that SRH lost their three wickets in quick succession, though Karan kept on fighting and made 39 runs off 33 balls and pushed SRH to 146 in their 20 over.
Earlier in the match, it was the opening pair of Murali Vijay and Mike Hussey who added 45 runs in first five overs and gave their team to a flying start. Vijay was sent back to dug-out after he scored 29 runs off 20 balls. Raina came into the centre and without wasting much time started sending the SRH bowlers on leather hunt.
Raina and Hussey were unstoppable in their partnership of 133 runs as they kept on scoring at the rate of over eight runs. Hussey departed after scoring 67 runs off 52 balls which was studded with five fours and four sixes. But Raina continued his good work and took his team to a score of 200 plus as he scored 99 runs off just 52 balls.
CSK ended up with the score of 223/3 in their 20 overs.
Thisara Perera was the bowler who got all three wickets.
By ISN