Rayudu’s maiden century took CSK to the playoffs

After winning the toss Captain Cool MS Dhoni sent the Sunrisers to bat first in the 46^th match of the Indian Premier League. Hoping to repeat the same fate they handed to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first encounter of this edition of the IPL. However, Sunrisers Hyderabad will come into this match seeking vengeance since they are on a six match winning streak, they would do everything to make it seven matches in a row. And as they came out to bat, it was evident from their aggressive batting that they are going to put up a colossal score for the home team to chase.

Shikhar Dhawan started off well the innings for the visiting team but Alex Hales couldn’t hold off the bowling attack of the super-machaans and fell for Chahar’s tricks. The scoreboard read 18-1 after 3.3 overs. Given the intensity of this match, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s skipper Kane Williamson came to the ground to lead his team from the front. Together, Dhawan and Williamson outsmarted the Chennai bowlers and put up a partnership of 123 runs consisting of boundaries both ground and over the head. It was getting quite predictable that Sunrisers were eyeing for a 200 runs score against the two times IPL winners. However, in just two balls the dream of scoring 200 or more runs fell like a house of cards as both Dhawan and Williamson are back to the pavilion in two consecutive balls. The scoreboard remains stuck at 141-3, which led the youngster Manish Pandey to come out to bat. Before Pandey could make a crucial contribution he was back in the pavilion as well leaving the legacy to Deepak Hooda and Shakib Al Hasan who did their best to reach a score of 179 runs for the loss of 4 wickets after 20 overs.

To chase down a score of 180 runs, Chennai needed a run rate of 9 runs per over so they sent off their two top flight batsmen on the crease. Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu started off the innings with sheer will and confidence and put up the match winning partnership of 134 runs when Shane Watson fell short off the crease and went for 57 runs. The score was 134-1 after 13.3 overs. The in-form Suresh Raina came to the crease and went back after three balls, the score was 137-2 which led to the skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the crease. Ambati Rayudu scores his maiden IPL century as Chennai Super Kings won by 8 wickets.