IPL 2018: Du Plessis Takes CSK to 7th Final From Brink of Defeat
 |
| PHOTO CREDITS:BCCI |
South
African skipper
Faf du
Plessis
pulled off a 'Houdini Act' to guide Chennai
Super Kings to
their seventh Indian
Premier
League final with
a two-wicket victory over Sunrisers
Hyderabad in IPL 2018 Qualifier 1 in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Chasing
a modest target of 140, CSK were
down in dumps at 92 for 7 before Du Plessis (67 off 42 balls) engineered a
stunning comeback and fittingly finished the match with a straight six off Bhuvneshwar
Kumar.
With
43 needing off last three overs, Du Plessis, who opened the batting,
launched into Carlos Brathwaite's 18th over
smashing him for 20 runs which included two sixes and two fours.
Having
done precious little in the tournament so far, the stylish right-hander put his
hand up when it mattered most.
Siddarth Kaul bowling the 19th over paid for his inexperience in a crunch game
as 17 runs came off that over as number ten Shardul Thakur (15 off 5 balls) got three boundaries including a streaky
one.
Then
it was Du Plessis, who finished the match having hit five
fours and four
maximums.
Banned for two seasons on charges of
corruption,
the most
successful franchise in the history of T20 cricket played like a
team
possessed with their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni once
again at the forefront with calm
demeanour.
However
Sunrisers
bowlers do deserve credit for making a match of a small
total but this time
their luck ran out in the end.
Shane Watson (0) edged one off Bhuvneshwar
Kumar while
Kaul (2/32) castled Suresh Raina (22 off 13 balls) and in-form
Ambati Rayudu (0) off successive deliveries.
MS Dhoni failed
to read a googly from Rashid
Khan while Dwayne
Bravo was done in by extra bounce edging one to Shikhar
Dhawan
at slips.
Du
Plessis waged
a lone battle as wickets fell in a heap at the
other end with Sandeep Sharma
getting rid of Ravindra Jadeja
and Deepak Chahar.
Earlier, CSK
bowlers utilised
the lively conditions to the fullest restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to a modest 139 for 7 after being put into bat.
Effective seam bowling in Powerplay
overs swung the game towards two-time champions early on in the innings and
they never let it slacken except towards the end when Carlos Brathwaite (43 off 29 balls) laid into Shardul Thakur.
Skipper Kane
Willamson (24),
Yusuf Pathan (24)
and Brathwaite (43 in 29 balls) were the useful contributors for Sunrisers on a
track that offered good bounce.
CSK
pegged back Sunrisers at
47 for 3 with both Williamson and opener Shikhar
Dhawan (0)
back in the dugout.Dhawan, the
second-highest scorer for Sunrisers
with 437 runs,
was out played-on off Deepak Chahar of
the first delivery of
the match.
Williamson, in red-hot form in the
season, produced three hits to the fence off the last three balls in the same
over, an exquisite extra cover drive being the pick.
From the other end, Lungi Ngidi packed off the other opener Shreevats Goswami by accepting a smart return catch,
when the batsman tried to pull.
At 34
for two, the Sunrisers, who
came into the play-off game after suffering three straight losses, were in trouble and it worsened when they lost their skipper Williamson.
The New
Zealand captain feathered
a catch down leg-side ball off Shardul
Thakur to rival captain Dhoni to
leave Hyderabad reeling at 36 for 3 in the fifth over.
 |
| CSK:FIRST FINAL TEAM ON IPL 2018 |
CSK, attempting to make it to their
seventh final in nine seasons that
they have been part of IPL, struck another blow just past the Powerplay period.
Shakib Al Hasan also
fell to a leg-side catch by Dhoni off Dwayne
Bravo (2/25) and
it left Sunrisers
at a spot at 50 for 4. After 10 overs, the score was a modest 64 for 4.
Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 13) sent
back Manish Pandey cheaply
as half the Sunrisers was
back in the pavilion with only 69 on the board.
Then Bravo
pulled off a stunner, pouching on to a low full-blooded drive from Pathan.
A late flurry from West Indian
Brathwaite, who slammed Thakur for four huge sixes and a four in death overs,
boosted the total significantly.
Comments