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Ranchi: Sunrisers Hyderabad put up a brave fight but the lack of quality batsmen down the order hurt them as they went down to Chennai Super Kings by 12 runs in the Champions League T20 clash at the JSCA International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Chasing a difficult target of 203, Sunrisers captain Shikhar Dhawan (48 off 34 balls) and opening partner Parthiv Patel (38, 28b) gave them the perfect start, notching up 88 in just 9.2 overs. But after losing Patel to a misunderstanding, the Hyderabad side lost JP Duminy and Dhawan quickly, which derailed the chase.
Darren Sammy gave MS Dhoni's men a few anxious moments, smashing 50 off 25 balls but wickets at the other end kept the required rate out of reach. They ended the 20 overs at 190/7.
Earlier, Dhoni's home crowd finally got to see what the world has known all along - that Mahi hitting the best of bowlers around the park can be an awe-inspiring sight.
Coming in typically with only 5.3 overs left, the Chennai captain hit only one boundary. Instead, he decided to deal in sixes, hitting eight of them - five in one over off Thisara Perera - and finished with 63 off 19 balls, taking the team's total to 202 for four.
Dhoni hit JP Duminy straight to the president's box off only the second ball he played. Duminy would thank his stars that it was his last over because he avoided the worst.
Poor Thisara Perera wasn't so lucky. The over started ominously when the Sri Lankan bowled a wide down the leg side. Then Dhoni hit him over long on when he pitched within the stumps.
That extracted another wide, and Ishant Sharma's misfielding kept Dhoni on strike. The next four balls went out of the park - over square-leg, point, wide mid-on and third man respectively.
Only Dale Steyn could keep the CSK captain under control, conceding a lone boundary. Sammy bowled the last over and decided to go wide off the stumps so that Dhoni did not get it in his favourite area.
But that didn't pay off. MSD made good enough connection to hit him out of the ground twice over cover, completing his half-century off 16 balls.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field
Both teams are unchanged.
Teams:
Chennai: Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Albie Morkel, Jason Holder, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma
Hyderabad: Parthiv Patel (wk), Shikhar Dhawan (capt.), Jean-Paul Duminy, Hanuma Vihari, Thisara Perera, Darren Sammy, Ashish Reddy, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma
Brief scores
Chennai Super Kings 202 for 4 (Raina 84, Dhoni 63*)
Sunrisers Hyderabad 190 for 7 (Sammy 50, Bravo 2-34)
Result Chennai Super Kings won by 12 runs
Points Chennai Super Kings 4, Sunrisers Hyderabad 0
MOM Suresh Raina (Chennai Super Kings)
