Chennai, April 29 (IANS): Riding on captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 98, Daryl Mitchell’s 52 and fast-bowler Tushar Deshpande’s superb four-wicket haul, defending champions Chennai Super Kings broke their two-match losing streak with a massive 78-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 46 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday night.

On a dry pitch, Gaikwad fell two runs short of becoming the second batter to hit back-to-back IPL centuries, while Mitchell got his maiden fifty in the tournament as the duo carried CSK to a huge 212/3 in 20 overs.

In reply, SRH were never in it to chase it down and were eventually bowled out for 134 in 18.5 overs, which is also their second straight attempt over not acing a batting second innings. Deshpande struck thrice in Power-play to pick IPL-best figures of 4-22 and lead a brilliant bowling performance for CSK.

Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman (two wickets each), Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur (one scalp each) were also amongst the wicket-takers for CSK.

The big victory is also CSK’s 50th IPL win at Chepauk and it takes them from sixth to third place on the points table, where they are now tied on 10 points with SRH, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals.

Gaikwad played risk-free shots and was solid in hitting 10 fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 181.48 in his 54-ball knock. Mitchell finally came good after a lean start to the tournament by smashing seven fours and a six in his 32-ball stay at the crease, apart from sharing a 107-run stand with Gaikwad.

Shivam Dube’s unbeaten 20-ball 39, laced with four sixes and a boundary was also helpful in CSK going past 200 on consecutive occasions.

Pushed into batting first, CSK had a cautious start as they hit only two boundaries in 2.1 overs. Ajinkya Rahane’s poor run continued as he miscued to mid-wicket off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Gaikwad and Mitchell hit six boundaries between themselves in the rest of the Power-play as CSK ended the phase at 50/1.

Mitchell finally hit CSK’s first six of the innings by lofting Cummins over long-off for six, followed by Gaikwad getting his fifty in 27 balls pulling the pacer for a maximum over deep mid-wicket fence. Mitchell upped his scoring version by driving, slicing, paddling, lofting and scooping to get his fifty off 29 balls.

But Mitchell fell soon after, falling for 52 off 32 balls after hitting a full toss from Jaydev Unadkat straight to deep mid-wicket. Gaikwad went for hitting boundaries off slower deliveries and low-full tosses and got ample support from Shivam Dube, who smashed three sixes with his ferocious power and long levers.

But Gaikwad struggled to find timing in the fag end of his innings and miscued a loft to deep mid-wicket off Natarajan in the final over. A four for M.S. Dhoni and Dube flicking high over deep mid-wicket for six ensured CSK crossed 210, though they got only 20 runs in the last two overs.

Chasing 213, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma hit three quick boundaries, before Deshpande’s triple strikes derailed the SRH chase upfront. On his slower wide ball, Head holed out to deep point.

Impact Player Anmolpreet Singh was undone by late movement and gave a leading edge to extra cover. Abhishek Sharma was next to fall, undone by a slower short ball which he sliced to point as SRH reached 53/3 at the end of power-play.

CSK continued to put pressure on SRH when Nitish Kumar Reddy top-edged a pull to M.S. Dhoni off Ravindra Jadeja, followed by Matheesha Pathirana bowling a magnificent yorker to take out Aiden Markram’s middle stump. Such was the tight grip held by CSK bowlers that SRH could hit only three boundaries in the middle overs.

Pathirana struck again when Heinrich Klaasen didn’t get much elevation on a low full toss and holed out to long-on, while Abdul Samad hit straight to long-off against Shardul Thakur. Deshpande got his fourth wicket when Pat Cummins holed out to long-on, and Mitchell took his fifth catch of the game when Shahbaz Ahmed whipped straight to him at square leg.

CSK ended SRH’s innings in the 19th over when Moeen Ali grabbed a good low catch at the extra cover of Jaydev Unadkat to complete a massive win for the hosts, despite a lot of dew being on the outfield in the second innings.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 212/3 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 98, Daryl Mitchell 52; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-38, Jaydev Unadkat 1-38) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 all out in 18.5 overs (Aiden Markram 32; Tushar Deshpande 4-27, Matheesha Pathirana 2-17) by 78 runs