Synopsis: Malinga’s craft and Sakib’s cunning pull SRH through as CSK’s blazing start fades into a 10-run regret
Chennai Super Kings gave themselves every chance and then ran out of answers. A 76-run powerplay, Mhatre blazing, Short anchoring, the equation always just about manageable — and then, over by over, the margin that felt comfortable quietly became the margin that wasn’t. Two bowlers made the difference. One knew exactly what he was doing. The other was still figuring it out — and figured it out just in time.
Sakib’s cunning
Sakib Hussain’s first over told you nothing about what was coming. Five wides down leg, runs leaking before he’d found his footing. The kind of start that can unravel a young bowler in a chase this tight.
It didn’t. He came back, recalibrated, and spent the next eight overs becoming the most disciplined bowler on the park.
Against Short and Sarfaraz, the method was simple — cutters on a good length, yorkers into the stumps, nothing full, nothing wide, nothing inviting. Short scratched around. Sarfaraz could never quite free his arms. The 7-run over in the 9th, the 6-run over in the 14th — not spectacular, but suffocating.
Then Dube arrived, and Sakib had a different problem to solve. Off-cutter after off-cutter, short of length, into the body, down leg. Nothing full, nothing to drive. Dube kept nudging and tucking, but never getting the length he wanted. Over by over, Sakib was building something.
Dube was waiting. The full ball would come. It had to. It did. Only it wasn’t slower. Pacy, full, middle stump, seam wobbling off the pitch — and Dube, feet cemented, already committed to the flick, was late. The ball brushed the back pad and clattered the stumps. From five wides in his first over to match-turning wicket in his last, it was Sakib’s night.
Malinga’s craft
Eshan Malinga had a different kind of economy — three wickets, 29 runs, and the knack of arriving at exactly the right moment. He strangled Gaikwad with a short ball in the powerplay, the CSK captain getting in a tangle trying to hook, the glove doing the rest. When Sarfaraz and Short had quietly rebuilt to a 46-run stand through the middle, it was Malinga who broke it — full, shaping back in, Sarfaraz losing his bottom hand and spooning it to deep square-leg. And when Short, who had batted with quiet authority through the chaos around him, threatened to take the game deep, Malinga returned to remove him too. Three moments, three wickets, same bowler.
Abhishek’s fireworks
SRH had given their bowlers something to defend. Abhishek Sharma’s 59 off 22 in the powerplay set the tone — short, wide, and he punished every one, cutting and slapping with minimal footwork and maximum intent, bringing up his fifty off 15 balls. When he fell in the 8th over, Klaasen took over with more patience than power, waiting for his arc, picking his moments. Against Noor Ahmad he was merciless — 24 of his 59 runs came against the Afghan wrist-spinner, pulling him through midwicket again and again until Noor had no answer for it. Between them, 118 runs. Enough, in the end, by 10.
Brief Scores: SRH 194/9 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 59, Klaasen 59; Overton 3/37, Kamboj 3/22) beat CSK 184/8 in 20 overs (Short 34, Mhatre 30; Malinga 3/29, Nitish Reddy 2/31) by 10 runs.
