Harshal Patel impresses with 4-wicket haul in 5-wicket victory, their first-ever at Chepauk
Chennai: Pacer Harshal Patel made the best use of a sluggish Chepauk surface as Sunrisers Hyderabad put Chennai Super Kings on the brink of exit door by winning the battle of back-benchers by five wickets in the Indian Premier League here on Friday.
Harshal, a fine exponent of the slower delivery and the knuckle ball, took 4 for 28 as Chennai Super Kings endured another poor outing with the bat and were bowled out for 154 in 19.5 overs.
Despite getting assistance from the dew-laden surface, SRH made a heavy weather of the chase before finally knocking off the target in 18.4 overs.
Ishan Kishan (44 off 34 balls), after his brain fade against Mumbai Indians, played a responsible hand at the top before Kamindu Mendis (32 not out off 22 balls) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (19 not out off 13 balls) got the visitors two points with a 49-run stand. This was SRH’s first win at this venue.
With six points from nine games, SRH’s play-off qualification hangs by a thread as they need to win all their five matches and that too by a fair margin to end on 16 points, which is a safe cut-off.
SRH leapfrogged Rajasthan Royals to the eighth position in the 10-team table as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men remain at the bottom of the heap.
For CSK, their seventh defeat in nine games practically ends their hopes as they now need wins in the next five games and hope that the play-off cut-off remains at 14 for the fourth-placed team.
Harshal was well-supported by Pat Cummins (2/21), Kamindu (1/26), Shami (1/28), and Unadkat (2/21). Dewald Brevis top-scored for CSK with 42 off 25 balls, while Ayush Mhatre (30) and Deepak Hooda (22) chipped in. However, CSK lost wickets regularly and failed to recover, even as Dhoni’s 400th T20 appearance ended in disappointment.
