Hyderabad, April 5 (IANS): The bowlers executed the pace-off strategy and hitting hard lengths well to help Sunrisers Hyderabad restrict Chennai Super Kings to 165/5 in 20 overs on a sluggish pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday.

With slower deliveries gripping off the pitch when the ball got older, SRH bowlers did well to keep CSK batters in check by conceding just 38 runs in the last five overs. It was a phase where the batters found it difficult to time their shots, with Shivam Dube’s 45 being the top score by a CSK batter, including hitting two fours and four sixes.

Electing to bowl first, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar found some early swing and was rewarded with his first wicket of IPL 2024 when Rachin Ravindra top-edged a pull to mid-on in the fourth over.

Ajinkya Rahane got going by hitting both Cummins and Bhuvneshwar over long-on and non-striker’s head for six and four respectively. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad steered and hit a gorgeous, lofted drive for six off Bhuvneshwar as CSK reached 48/1 in six overs.

But CSK were given a jolt on the first ball of the eighth over when Gaikwad mistimed a loft and holed out to long-on for 26 off 21 balls off Shahbaz Ahmed. Shivam Dube came out all guns blazing against spinners by hammering Ahmed for six and four, followed by handing out the same treatment to Mayank Markande.

Dube thrilled everyone by hammering T, Natarajan for back-to-back sixes over the mid-wicket fence, though he was kept quiet by a change of pace from Cummins. From the other end, Rahane struggled to get fluency due to SRH’s change of pace.

Cummins bowled a slower bouncer well outside the off stump, forcing Dube to throw his hands at it and the batter gave a catch straight to backward point, falling for 45 off 24 balls. The slower ball again did the trick for SRH has Rahane sliced to backward point off Jaydev Unadkat, falling for a 30-ball 35, followed by Daryl Mitchell holing out to long-on off Natarajan in the final over.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 165/5 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 45, Ajinkya Rahane 35; Shahbaz Ahmed 1-11, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-28) against Sunrisers Hyderabad