A brilliant bowling performance from the bowlers after a solid 77-run stand for the fifth wicket between Priyam Garg (51 not out) and Abhishek Sharma (38) powered Sunrisers Hyderabad to 7-run win against Chennai Super Kings in an IPL match on Friday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the pick of the bowlers as they restricted Dhoni-led CSK to 157/5 in 20 overs.
Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis started the proceedings for Chennai Super Kings. Left-handed batsman Watson was not looking comfortable against the fiery in-swinging deliveries of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The speedster finally got rid of the Aussie by getting his inside edge straight onto his stumps for just one run. It was for the fourth time, Bhuvi dismissed the legendary Australian in the IPL.
Next man in was Ambati Rayudu who was the hero of CSK's only win so far in the tournament. However, today was not a happy comeback for the veteran batsman as he was castled (clean bowled) cheaply by Natrajan for 26 and SRH got its second wicket.
The next major blow for Chennai Super Kings came in form of Faf du Plesis who got run out, leaving his team 36 for 3 after the end of six overs. It was SRH's batting hero Priyam Garg's throw that led to Faf getting run out for 22.
J&K's Abdul Samad got his maiden IPL wicket and another big wicket for the Sunrisers by getting rid of Kedar Jadhav out for just three runs. Not only Samad bagged a wicket but gave only two runs from his first over.
With MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja on the field, CSK were in deep trouble in the chase and reached 44 for 4 halfway through the second innings (10 overs). Both Mahi and Jadeja continued to struggle against the fiery SRH bowling attack with the run rate increasing to more than 14 runs per over after 14 overs.
Jadeja got lucky in the 17th over bowled by Bhuvenshwar, who missed his line and length and got hit for three boundaries in a row by the CSK star all-rounder. With this, CSK got 100 up in the same over with skipper Dhoni and Jadeja starting to fightback against SRH bowlers.
Thanks to the dropped catch by Manish Pandey at mid-off, Jadeja scored his maiden IPL fifty but, like Priyam Garg, got departed in the very next ball to give Natarajan his second wicket of the match. In the last 12 balls, CSK needed 44 runs to win.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was bowling remarkably well in the 19th over but had to leave the over midway after sustaining injury in his left thigh. He was replaced by Khaleel Ahmed who was smashed for a flat six by Dhoni. The last over was bowled by spinner Abdul Samad.
In the 20th over, SRH has 23 runs to defend in last six balls with one of world's best finisher MS Dhoni on strike. The veteran scored some quick runs in the first few balls bringing it down to 16 required off three but Samad successfully lead his team to a 7 run win.
Earlier, batting first, The solid partnership (77 runs off 43 balls) between Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma helped Sunrisers Hyderabad post a challenging 164/5 against Chennai Super Kings.
The solid partnership between the rookies kept SRH in the game all throughout. 19-year-old Priyam Garg notched up his maiden IPL fifty off just 23 balls.