The exciting affair between two IPL giants CSK and SRH certainly managed to live up to the hype. Mahendra Singh Dhoni finally returned to the helm as the captain of CSK for the first time in IPL 2022. The players looked rejuvenated and were able to consequently win quite comfortably after putting up a score of 202 runs in the first innings. At the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway set up a 182-run first-wicket partnership. It helped CSK to put up an impressive 202/2 on the board while batting first. After a quiet season as Chennai Super Kings’ opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad definitely turned heads on Sunday against Sunrisers Hyderabad. With a stunning knock of 99 against SRH that included six sixes and as many boundaries, Ruturaj is finally living up to the billing that was promised from the get-go. It was interesting to say the least, that his impressive form returned with MSD’s return to captaincy.
In the end, it was a bittersweet moment for Ruturaj as he missed out on a century by just one run. However, in the end, he was rightly awarded the Man of the Match award for his contributions. IPL 2022 has certainly seen some interesting results. One of the most interesting results was the underwhelming performance of CSK. Nonetheless, CSK fans will be hoping for a turnaround if they wish to qualify for the playoffs. Luckily for them, the ever-dependable Dhoni is back in control.
Sunrisers Hyderabad too was not shabby in their response. SRH openers Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson were off to a brilliant start. The boundaries were flowing nicely. However, Mukesh Choudhary was able to dismantle this partnership as he later went on a 4 wicket haul. SRH was only able to manage 189 runs after losing 6 wickets before the overs ran out. Nicholas Pooran (64* off 33) Captain Kane Williamson (47) and Abhishek Sharma (39) were the anchors of the team. Aiden Markram too was able to get consecutive boundaries. However, the rest of the team didn’t manage to perform quite well, which resulted in their defeat.
Where they stand:
This win certainly provides a boost to the morale of the CSK, as they still sit in the bottom half of the table at 9th, just above Mumbai Indians. SRH on the other hand has done quite well in IPL 2022 so far with 10 points on the table as they remain in the 4th spot. However, with back-to-back defeats, the team certainly needs to sort out their problems on the field to get back to their winning ways.
Post Match Comments:
The post-match comments from the respective team captains during the award ceremony highlighted the high-scoring match and the importance of luck in these types of bouts. Below are the excerpts from the interview. First was SRH captain Kane Williamson addressing the loss.
Kane Williamson (SRH): Whenever you get over 200, there’s a real challenge chasing it down. I thought the heart shown in the first half was a really good effort, obviously, we had our challenges with trying to find a few overs out there at times but at the end of the day, CSK played superbly well. Put us under pressure and got a really good total on the board so you know still a lot of positives to take but a little bit unfortunate not quite having the resource we would have liked going into the match.
Next up was Mahendra Singh Dhoni from CSK with his thoughts on returning as captain and the win overall.
MS Dhoni (CSK): I think it was a very good score to start off. When you put that kind of a score you know it’s slightly easy for the bowlers to defend. There was nothing different when you are in the same dressing room and you keep saying the same thing so it is not like when you change the captain a lot of the things change. It was one of those coincidences where we got off to a very good start and we made the most of a good wicket and we force the bowlers to bowl the areas where we wanted to hit.
The match awards were handed out to the outstanding players of the match. Below is a list of the awardees.
Punch Super Striker of the match: Nicholas Pooran with 64* off 33 balls at a strike rate of 193.94
Dream11 Game Changer of the match: Ruturaj Gaikwad with 135 fantasy points
Unacademy Let’s Crack It sixes award: Nicholas Pooran with 6 sixes
Cred Power player of the match: Mukesh Choudhary with a 2 wicket haul of 26 in the power-play
Upstox most valuable asset of the match: Ruturaj Gaikwad for his match-defining 99 runs.
Swiggy InstaMart Fastest Delivery of the match: Umran Malik with the fastest delivery of the match at 154 km/hr
RuPay on the go fours of the match: Devon Conway with 8 fours
And finally, the Player of the match: Ruturaj Gaikwad
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