Chennai: Pat Cummins displayed his absolute control over pace and length with a three-wicket burst, but a collective batting effort helped Chennai Super Kings reach a competitive 180 for seven against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match here on Monday.
The Hyderabad skipper (3/28) struck at crucial junctures of the match to ensure that CSK would not embark on a lopsided run after the home side elected to bat.
Sanju Samson gave a thunderous start to the Super Kings, smashing Nitish Kumar Reddy for 6, 4, 4, to eke out 17 runs in the first over.
Samson handed an equally harsh treatment to Praful Hinge in the next over, biffing him for a hat-trick of fours.
But Cummins introduced himself in the third over and pitched one up at good pace, and Samson’s booming drive ended in the safe mitts of stumper Ishan Kishan.
Urvil Patel gave an early warning of hitting abilities with two successive sixes off Cummins, but Sakib Hussain’s slow ball beat his horizontal bat to rattle the stumps.
Chennai captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and the impressive Kartik Sharma (32, 19 balls) constructed a 42-run stand for the third wicket to keep their side on track.
Kartik underlined his fast-growing maturity with some stunning shots like an inside out four off Hinge and a pulled six of left-arm wrist spinner Shivang Kumar.
But Cummins returned to account for the young right-hander as a pace off delivery outside off-stump robbed momentum from his upper cut, which ended with Nitish at deep.
Soon, Cummins’ pacy chest-high bouncer accounted for Gaikwad, snapping his painful 15 off 21 balls. Gaikwad’s lame pull could not clear Eshan Malinga in the deep.
Stranded without any force, CSK found some wind through Dewald Brevis (44, 27 balls) and Shivam Dube (26), who added 59 runs for the fifth wicket.
Brevis, who struggled for his range in this IPL so far, was impeccable on the night, creaming Cummins for six and Nitish for a maximum and a four. It was his highest score in this IPL season.
But Malinga rearranged his stumps with a 141 kmph thunderbolt to stall CSK again.
Dube and late order batters tried to revive the innings and take CSK past 200 but it proved just beyond their reach.
