The Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday notched their second win of the Indian Premier League 2024 season with a comfortable six-wicket win over the Chennai Super Kings.

After restricting the Super Kings to 165 on a slow-ish pitch, Hyderabad chased down their target with 11 balls to spare thanks to Abhishek Sharma (37) and Travis Head’s (31) onslaught in the power play followed by Aiden Markram’s fluid 50.

After opting to bowl first, Hyderabad reduced Chennai to 54/2 in the eighth over before Ajinkya Rahane (35) and Shivam Dube (45) accelerated the scoring in the middle overs.

However some disciplined bowling from Hyderabad’s pace bowlers in the death overs ensured Chennai could not go past the 170-run mark.

In the chase, Sharma and Head took on the Chennai bowlers in the powerplay overs as they posted 78 runs in six overs for the loss of one wicket. Markram joined the party scoring a 36-ball 50 to take Hyderabad home.

Turning point of the match

Chennai were motoring along nicely with Rahane and Dube stitching together a 65-run stand in just 39 balls. However, Dube perished in the 14th over with Rahane following suit the next over.

With two new batters in Jadeja and Daryl Mitchell in the middle, the Hyderabad bowlers applied the squeeze giving away just 38 runs in the final five overs.

T Natarajan, who had given away 27 runs in his first two overs, conceded just 12 runs in his final two overs and also took the wicket of Mitchell. Jaydev Unadkat and Bhuvneshwar Kumar only let 13 runs scored in the two overs between them.

On a pitch where 175 could have been a par score, Chennai captain Gaikwad acknowledged that Hyderabad’s bowling in the death gave the home side the upper hand.

Player of the match

It is not often that a player who scores a match-winning half-century is not the player of the match. But even Markram, who anchored Hyderabad’s chase, wouldn’t mind acknowledging that Sharma was the player of the match.

His 12-ball 37 which included clobbering Mukesh Chaudhary for 27 runs in a single over effectively took the match away from Chennai.

‘Looks pretty fun at the moment’

Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins was full of praise for Sharma in the post-match presentation joking that he wouldn’t want to face the southpaw.

“It looks pretty fun at the moment,” Cummins said. “I wouldn’t want to bowl to him (Sharma) and Travis Head at the top. They are playing with freedom and that is what we want from them.”

During the bowling we felt it was a bit slow wicket. We knew somehow if we take the powerplay on, then we can go with the flow after that. We had a chance to prepare well before the IPL. We knew it will be a bit slow but not much if we take on the bowler. It’s difficult for the bowler as well.

Big scores matter, but just I went with the flow today. Hopefully I will get it (a big score) next time. It is all the hard work I have put before this. Special thanks to my dad, Yuvi paaji (Yuvraj Singh) and Brian Lara.

— SRH’s Abhishek Sharma