CSK Live To Fight Another Day, Beat SRH By 13 Runs

MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings kept themselves relevant in the race to playoffs as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 13 runs in match 46 of the IPL 2022 played at Pune's MCA Stadium. 

Chasing a target of 203, Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson provided a great start to SRH as they put 58 runs inside the powerplay. However, on the final two balls of the powerplay, Hyderabad lost Abhishek for 39 and Rahul Tripathi for a golden duck. 

Aiden Markram and Kane Williamson 30 runs for the third wicket. Markram looked to be aggressive during his 17 off 10 and got out at the boundary trying to hit Mitchell Santner for a six. 

The tried and tested batters for SRH were over and Nicholas Pooran was left with inexperienced lower-order batters to chase down the rest of the runs after Williamson too got out in the 15th over with 77 runs left. 

Pooran smacked an unbeaten 64 off 33 balls with the help of three fours and six sixes - 24 of these runs came in the last over when Hyderabad needed 38. But lack of support from the others saw SRH fell short by 13 runs eventually. 

Mukesh Choudhary picked up four wickets in his four overs - Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar - and conceded 46 runs, including 24 in the final over. 

Earlier, it was a Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway show in the first inning as CSK scored 202/2. Gaikwad and Conway added record 182 runs for the first wicket - the highest partnership for CSK in IPL and the 4th highest opening partnership overall in the tournament. 

Gaikwad smacked 99 runs in 57 balls with the help of six fours and as many sixes. His beautiful-looking inning came to an end in the 17th over as he missed his second IPL century by just one run and became only the first batter to get stuck on 99 in IPL history. Conway scored an unbeaten 85 off 55 balls with the help of eight fours and four sixes. 

T Natarajan was the lone wicket-taker for SRH as he removed Gaikwad and MS Dhoni, finishing with the figures of 2/42 in four overs. 

Brief Scorecard: 

Also Read: IPL 2022 - Scorecard

Chennai Super Kings - 202/2 (Ruturaj Gaikwad - 99, Devon Conway - 85*) 
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 189/6 (Nicholas Pooran - 64*, Mukesh Choudhary - 4/46)