Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway put on the best stand of this IPL season to set up a comfortable win for the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.
Four-time winners Chennai beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 13 runs after they defended 202-2 in the second match of the day in Pune.
MS Dhoni, who gave up the Chennai captaincy ahead of this IPL, accepted the job back on Saturday after Ravindra Jadeja stepped down following the team’s six losses from eight games.
The 40-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman received a rousing welcome when he walked out for the toss with Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson who put Chennai in to bat.
Gaikwad (99) and the left-handed Conway (85*) guided Chennai to a big total as their marathon partnership of 182 frustrated the opposition bowlers.
Speedster Umran Malik bowled the fastest ball of the IPL season at 154km/h to Gaikwad, but he smashed it for a boundary down the ground.
Umran, who returned figures of 5-25 in his previous match, hit the mark again with a yorker to Dhoni.
Gaikwad kept up the attack and brought up his fifty with a boundary off Malik, but missed out on a ton when he gave a catch to point off T Natarajan. He hit six sixes in his 57-ball knock.
The Hyderabad bowlers, including Umran, came back to check the flow of runs in the final few overs but Conway finished with two fours and a single to get Chennai past 200.
In reply, the Sunrisers finished on 189-6 despite Nicholas Pooran’s unbeaten 33-ball 64.
Skipper Kane Williamson, who made 47, and Abhishek Sharma got Hyderabad off to a brisk start with 52 off the first five overs, before Mukesh Choudhary broke through with wickets from successive balls.
Williamson fell lbw to Proteas all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius as he missed a big heave in an attempt to accelerate the scoring.
Left-arm seamer Choudhary finished with figures of 4-46, with 24 coming off his last over.
The left-handed Pooran survived two dropped catches before he hit three sixes off the 20th over to help his side avoid taking a big hit to their net run-rate.
© Agence France-Presse
