Hyderabad, Apr 6 (IANS): Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers used the slowness of the pitch to their advantage by bowling slower balls and hitting hard lengths well, while Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Aiden Markram dished out clinical batting efforts to help the hosts beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets here on Friday.

On a black-soil pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, with slower deliveries gripping off the pitch when the ball got older, SRH did well to restrict CSK to 165/5. The seamers conceded just 38 runs in the last five overs, to stifle CSK’s run-flow. It was a phase in which the batters found it difficult to time their shots against the cutters, with Shivam Dube’s 45 being the top score by a CSK batter, including hitting two fours and four sixes. With no Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana in the eleven, CSK’s bowling bore a depleted look.

Head and Abhishek came out swinging to decide the result of the match in the Power-play itself, where they amassed 78/1. Eventually, SRH completed the chase in 18.1 overs to get consecutive wins at home, with Markram making a 36-ball fifty to give CSK their second successive defeat on the road.

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. Dube came out all guns blazing against spinners by hammering Ahmed for six and four, followed by giving out 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 as 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.

Chasing 166, Head got an early life when he went for a flashy cut off Deepak Chahar, but Moeen Ali dropped him for naught at first slip in the opening over. Four balls later, Head rubbed salt on CSK’s wounds by ramping a short ball for six. Left-arm fast-bowler Mukesh Choudhary, playing in a competitive match for the first time since December 2022, was all over the place with his lengths, giving Abhishek the ideal chance to cart him for two fours and three sixes to concede 27 runs in the second over.

Abhishek continued to time his shots by pulling and slapping Chahar for six and four respectively, before slicing uppishly to the backward point, falling for 37 off just 12 balls. Head and Markram hit six boundaries between themselves as SRH ended the power-play at 78/1 in six overs.

After a brief slow period, Markram broke free by launching Ravindra Jadeja over long-on for six and hammered Maheesh Theekshana for four more. The 60-run stand off 42 balls for the second wicket came to an end when Theekshana had Head sweeping to a deep backward square leg, falling for 31 off 24 balls.

Though Markram reached his first fifty of the competition, Moeen trapped him lbw four balls later and both took out Shahbaz Ahmed for 18 in the same fashion. But it was too late for CSK to force a twist in the game as Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen got the remaining runs, with the former hitting the winning runs in style by lofting a six straight down the ground.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 165/5 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 45, Ajinkya Rahane 35; Shahbaz Ahmed 1-11, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-28) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 166/4 in 18.1 overs (Aiden Markram 50, Abhishek Sharma 37; Moeen Ali 2-23, Maheesh Theekshana 1-27) by six wickets