Chennai Super Kings Caps off A Fairytale Comeback

Shane Watson put on a scintillating performance, packed with his vintage power-hitting, in front of the Wankhede crowd to mark CSK’s return to the IPL with a third title.

Cricket news: CSK matches the record of Mumbai Indians by winning the title thrice, thanks to Watson’s century

While chasing a big score of 179, nobody had thought that CSK would manage it with eight wickets in 18.3 overs and score 181/2 because of the slow start they had.

Watson took 10 straight dot balls to get off the mark after hitting a powerful boundary straight past the bowler. CSK lost their opening batsman Faf du Plessis for just 10 runs and had the team had just managed 20 runs off the first five overs.

Things started changing in the final over the Powerplay when Watson hit a six and four off consecutive deliveries and scored 15 runs of Sandeep Sharma’s over.

Watson was totally in punishing mood as he hit every bowlers except Rashid Khan (0/24) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/17).

Siddarth Kaul was totally out of sorts today, missing his line and length, and was hit for a six over square by Watson and was later hit for two boundaries in the same over by Suresh Raina (32).

Watson hit Shakib Al Hasan for two sixes in the 11th over and in the next over off Carlos Brathwaite, he had indicated to unleash the storm in the next over.

It was Sandeep’s final over and Watson struck him for three consecutive sixes and also hit two fours taking the total to 27 runs in that over. Sandeep finished with 52 runs and a wicket which costed SRH heavily.

Watson took a single and became the second centurion in an IPL final and the first to do it on a winning cause. The first centurion was Wriddhiman Saha who scored 115* in IPL 2014 final, but had lost to Kolkata Knight Riders.

Watson’s innings was studded with 11 boundaries and eight sixes. It is his second IPL title as the first was with Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural season.

Previously Yusuf Pathan and Carlos Brathwaite took the SRH’s innings’ reins in their hands and added 42 runs in the death overs to post SRH’s total to a competitive one.

Sunrisers had scored 42/1 in the Powerplay overs, as they had lost Shreevats Goswami (5), who came in place of injured Wriddhiman Saha, due to a run out in search of a needless second run.

After the Powerplay, Dhawan opened up along with Captain Kane Williamson, who crossed the 700-run mark, and became the sixth batsman in entire IPL history to do so.

Dhawan and Williamson took advantage of the fielding restrictions and started scoring at ease before Ravindra Jadeja struck with a quicker one to dismiss Dhawan (26).

However the new man Shakib Al Hasan and Williamson continued the onslaught and scored 17 runs off Jadeja’s next over, as both the players took the score to 101/2 in 12 overs.

Williamson was outfoxed by Karn Sharma, who came into the game replacing Harbhajan Singh. Karn bowled a widish delivery on seeing Williamson charging down the ground, which resulted in stumping by Dhoni.

Yusuf Pathan came to the crease and he and Shakib continued scoring runs, before Shakib was caught in the covers off Dwayne Bravo’s full toss on 23 runs off 15 balls.

Deepak Hooda came but could not do much, which brought Brathwaite in the middle, as Pathan and Brathwaite – two power-hitters of cricket ball combined together.

At one point 190 was seen as a possibility, but thanks to Lungi Ngidi’s eight runs in the penultimate over, which included a six off the last over, the scores were restricted to 178.

Pathan did the maximum damage with 45* off 25 balls while Brathwaite scored 21 off 11 balls, which included three sixes.

But all went in vain for Sunrisers Hyderabad because of Watson’s fantastic century as it helped CSK to equal the records of Mumbai Indians of winning three IPL titles.