The 14th match of the Indian Premier League 2020 featured the Chennai Super Kings and the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the latter winning by seven runs and handing CSK their third consecutive defeat of the season. The last time this happened was in 2014 when CSK nevertheless managed to qualify for the playoffs, only to lose to the Kings XI Punjab in the second qualifier.
After having a much-needed break, CSK made some crucial changes to the squad. Murali Vijay and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who weren’t very impressive with the bat, made way for Ambati Rayudu and Shardul Thakur. Dwayne Bravo regained his fitness and made his first start of the season in place of Josh Hazlewood. MS Dhoni finally decided to go with an extra bowler after his regulars proved to be very costly in the middle as well in the death overs.
SRH, on the other hand, played an unchanged squad after having defeated the Delhi Capitals in their previous game by a margin of 15 runs.
Having won the toss, David Warner once again elected to bat first, which comes as no surprise with the kind of bowling attack they possess.
In this cricket analysis, we will delve deeper into the statistics of the game to seek the moments that led to the defeat of the super kings.
How did the teams perform during their batting?
First Innings
CSK were off to a great start after dismissing Jonny Bairstow with an excellent inswinger by Deepak Chahar at the very beginning of the innings. Warner started slowly along with Manish Pandey who together managed to put up 42 runs at the end of the powerplay. Pandey was unable to capitalize on his start after being caught out at mid-off by a slower ball by Thakur. Just when Warner was trying to shift gears, Faf Du Plessis once again pulled off a stunning catch at long-on to send the captain back to the pavilion. On the very next ball, the New Zealand captain, Kane Williamson was run out cheaply after a poor response from his partner, Priyam Garg.
The SRH top guns were gone and it was all happening for CSK, just before the youngsters- Abhishek Sharma and Garg-came to rescue their team by putting up a great show in the middle. SRH managed to score just below 80 runs in the last five overs after a 22-run over by Sam Curran and a couple of drop catches by the CSK fielders. After an excellent death over by Thakur who gave away just seven runs, SRH were 164-5 at the end of 20 overs.
Second Innings
The SRH bowlers started even better by dismissing the top three batsmen from the CSK line up by giving up just 36 runs at the end of six overs. The CSK top-order once again failed to give their team a good start upfront which is very essential when chasing targets above 150. Kedar Jadhav and Dhoni tried to stabilize the innings albeit scoring at a very low run rate. Abdul Samad who bowled for the very first time in the IPL claimed the wicket of Jadhav, which was well caught by Warner at covers.
Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni scored just 43 runs in the middle overs which cost CSK the game-credits to Rashid Khan for a brilliant spell. Besides the pressure that was building, both the CSK batsmen were struggling to find the middle of the bat. With a bit of luck that came very late during the innings, Jadeja completed his half-century only to get dismissed in the very next ball. Dhoni struggled to find his timing and the humid conditions of Dubai only made it worse. Even though CSK managed to score 78 runs in the last five overs, they were short by seven runs to experience a much-needed victory.
Which bowler had the highest impact in the game?
It was none other than the world’s best T20 bowler, Rashid Khan. During the game, he had a dot ball percentage of 66.66%, which means he bowled four dot balls every over. This is just phenomenal considering the format. Moreover, he gave away just 12 runs which consisted of just one boundary in of the four overs that he bowled. Even though he went wicketless at the end of the game, it was a game-changing performance from the youngster.
Key batting performances
Yet again, the list is dominated by the SRH youngsters-Garg and Sharma-who stepped up when their team needed them the most. They put up a partnership of 77 runs in the middle which was the only reason behind the challenging total by SRH. Garg in particular was very impressive striking the ball at 196.15 also completing his maiden half-century in the IPL.
On the other hand, despite taking their team close to the target, Jadeja and Dhoni were struggling to time the ball. Dhoni in particular was batting with a strike rate of 130.53 and managed to score just three boundaries in the death overs which was very unlike him.
Conclusion
All in all, it was a brilliant performance from the SRH youngsters, and yet again the CSK top order failed to give their team the start they needed. The super kings need to rethink the inclusion of Shane Watson and Jadhav moving forward in the tournament.
