The Chennai Super Kings notched an important and valuable victory by beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 20 runs in Dubai on Tuesday.
That came despite losing Proteas batsman Faf du Plessis for a golden duck at the start of their innings after skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first.
Du Plessis opened the batting alongside Sam Curran and despite being in top form with the bat so far in this year’s IPL, he was undone by Sandeep Sharma with Jonny Bairstow taking the catch behind the stumps.
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CSK, though, got their innings rolling with good contributions down the order by Shane Watson (42), Ambati Rayudu (41) and Ravi Jadeja (25), who helped the team to 167-6 in their 20 overs.
Curran and Jadeja then turned on the heat with ball in hand as they accounted for the dangerous Sunrisers opening pair of Bairstow and David Warner.
Kane Williamson kept the Sunrisers in the game, however, with a brilliant 75 off 39 but, when he departed, the writing was all but on the wall.
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Tight bowling at the death by Kan Sharma and Dwayne Bravo secured the big win for CSK as the Sunrisers finished their innings on 147-8.
The victory will give Dhoni and his team some much-needed confidence for a belated turnaround of their campaign to secure a playoff spot.
