With this victory, Kane Williamson & Co jumped up to the 5th place on the points table with 8 points in their kitty. On the other hand, with 7 wins from games, Chennai’s remains the table topper with 14 points.
In pursuit of a 133-run target, Hyderabad went off to a blistering start. The duo of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow stitched a 66-run opening stand. The Australian opener slammed a 24-run half-century before getting caught by Faf du Plessis off Deepak Chahar.
The Orange Army slowed down a bit following Warner’s dismissal but Bairstow kept the fight on from one end. He carried the bat and slammed 61 runs off 44 deliveries including 3 sixes and as many fours.
For Chennai, Imran Tahir remained the highest wicket-talker as he returned with the figures – 2/17 in his 4-over spell. Chahar and Karn Sharma claimed one wicket apiece.
Earlier, a brilliant performance by bowlers helped SRHrestrict CSK to a paltry 132/5.
Electing to bat, Chennai's innings started slowly with openers Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis scoring just 14 runs in the first four overs. However, in the last two powerplay overs, both Watson and du Plessis hit some lusty shots and took the score to 41-0 at the end of six overs. Both the batsmen looked comfortable at the crease and collected boundaries at will.
Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem broke the 79-run opening partnership as he clean bowled Watson at 31 in the ninth over of the game. Vijay Shankar, included in the World Cup squad, celebrated his selection by sending du Plessis (45) to the hut in the next over.
Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayadu tried to steady the ship before star leg-spinner Rashid Khan trapped CSK stand-in skipper in front of the wickets. Two balls later, Kedar Jadhav (1) was also caught in front of the wickets, leaving CSK in a spot at 99-4 after 14 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja (10*) and Rayadu (25*) struggled in the death overs as SRH bowlers were disciplined towards the end of the innings and gave just 30 runs in the last five overs.