Ambati Rayudu scored his first century of the IPL campaign as the Chennai Super Kings all but sealed a qualifier spot by beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets.
The Sunrisers were sent in to bat first in this top-of-the-table clash in Chennai.
Their innings was built on a 123-run second-wicket partnership between Shikhar Dhawan (79 off 49 balls) and Kane Williamson (51 off 39 balls), which stretched through till the 16th over.
Dhawan was dismissed on the last ball of the 16th over by Dwayne Bravo and Williamson was sent back by Shardul Thakur as the innings was rained in with the score on 141. Deepak Hooda’s 11-ball 21 was the next best score as SRH, who have already qualified for the playoffs, posted a target of 180.
The chase was simple forCSK, kickstarted by a 134-run partnership between Shane Watson (57 off 35 balls) and Rayudu, who contributed 77 off 46 balls at that stage, before the dismissal of his opening partner.
Despite losing Suresh Raina for two, Rayudu went on to score his first century of the campaign.
His ton consisted of seven fours and seven sixes and with the help from his skipper, MS Dhoni (21 off 11 balls) took CSK over the line.
Their victory took them to 16 points, two points behind SRH at the top, having already sealed their qualification for the playoffs.
Photo by: Luke Walker /SPORTZPICS for BCCI
