IPL 2023, CSK vs SRH | Who said what ft. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Devon Conway
Chennai Super Kings romped to their second home win of the season at the Chepauk on Friday as they rolled over Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets. The Yellow Army's bowling attack put up a clinical display to restrict the visitors to a subpar 135 before the batters made light work of the chase.
Chennai Super Kings rode on the back of their spinners on a typical Chepauk track to register their second win on the trot and move up to third with eight points after six games. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, slumped to ninth following a fourth loss in the season already with Friday night's devastation being their second successive loss.
The visitors were asked to bat first and looked good for a par total at the halfway stage of the innings as two 30-odd run partnerships took them to 76/2. However, CSK's bowlers took over charge from there on and regular wickets helped keep the side to a paltry 134/7. In response, the hosts' openers shut down all hopes for SRH with a dominant 87-run stand and albeit a couple of cheap wickets set the stage for a miraculous turnaround, it was not to be as the Super Kings got to the target with seven wickets and eight balls to spare.
Never nice to lose, disappointed again. Let ourselves dow with the bat. Lacked partnerships of substance. It wasn't a 130-odd wicket, more closer to 160. Tough to get momentum if you don't have partnerships. They bowled well in the middle overs, didn't give us much to score of. We knew their spinners will play a big role, it was more about each person having his own plan to counter that. The guys had their plans but we couldn't get it right tonight ultimately. We need some wins now, have to see how we can get better with the bat. Proud how the bowlers stuck it out and took the game deep. Gonna take 1-2 guys to put their hands up, hopefully we can get it right the next game.
The Chepauk yet again witnessed an attendance of 30,000-plus with chants of 'MSD' ringing throughout the stadium at various stages in the encounter.
Whatever is said and done, the last phase of my career, important to enjoy it. It feels good to be here. They have given a lot of love and affection. They always stay late to listen to me. You need time to pick his action Pathirana's action. We have seen that with Malinga, someone who has an awkward action and who is very consistent with line and length. It's difficult to score off him. I was hesitant to bat second. Had the feeling there won't be much dew. Overall the middle overs were the setup. Fast bowlers bowled very well in the last few overs. I always tell them that the first preference of field setting is with you. Still, they didn't give me the best catch. I felt it was a fantastic catch. A long time back I still remember one game where Rahul Dravid was keeping and he caught one like that. Definitely, I am a bit old now, can't shy away from that.
Devon Conway played the starring role with the bat yet again, registering his third consecutive half-century with an unbeaten 77 off 57 deliveries.
Nice to be there in the end and get the win. Plan for us is simple. Every game, doesn't change too much. Play good cricket shows in the power play and put the bowlers under pressure. We try and look to repeat that regardless of what the score is. We probably got the best of the conditions, probably didn't hold as much as it did in the first innings. Pitch we experienced in Bangalore was a lot better. We knew we didn't have to be too reckless here.
The Player of the Match honour went Ravindra Jadeja's way for his brilliant figures of 3/22 that included the scalps of Indian trio Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi and Mayank Agarwal.
Coming to Chennai and looking at the wicket gives me a lot of happiness. You know for sure that it is going to turn. I had in my mind to not bowl too full. It is also important to keep wicket to wicket. Also, the boundary on one side is a lot bigger. CSK fans always support us, no matter if we win or lose.