Chennai wins the second match riding on McCullum’s century - The 4th match of the Indian Premier League was played in Chennai. This match saw Chennai Super Kings hosting the Sunrisers Hyderabad. This was the first match for the away team in this tournament and they surely would have been looking to hold the consistent team in their home conditions. It was a tough task beating the lions in their den. After winning the toss the home team decided to bat first.
Batting first Chennai got off to a great start as Brendon McCullum was looking in good touch. McCullum along with Dwayne Smith gave the team a start of 75 runs in 8 overs. The 1st ball of 9th over saw Smith losing his wicket. It was a run out that eventually broke the partnership. He lost his wicket after scoring 27 runs. Suresh Raina too failed to score much in the game as he lost his wicket after scoring only 14 runs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined hands with McCullum and started the onslaught for Chennai. They together took the team to a total of 198 runs in 19.2 overs. Dhoni lost his wicket after scoring 53 runs in 29 balls. The Chennai ended their innings at a score of 209 with McCullum scoring 100 runs in 56 balls.
The score of 210 was a huge target in any IPL match and Hyderabad needed a super start in the game to ensure that they are on track to chase the score well. Shikhar Dhawan scored 26 off 18 balls but lost his wicket after getting a start. Later Chennai struck once again taking the wicket of Lokesh Rahul. Hyderabad was struggling at 46/2 in 6th over. David Warner and Naman Ojha tried to take the charge to the opposition but the disciplined bowling of Chennai made sure that the batsmen didn’t go too far. Ojha lost his wicket after scoring only 15 runs. Warner scored 53 runs off 42 balls before losing his wicket. With this loss of wicket the result was evident and Hyderabad ended their innings at 164 runs in 20 overs. Chennai continued their winning ways to move to the top of the IPL table.
Brendon McCullum bagged all the awards which included the HotStar Most Entertaining player, Yes Bank Maximum Sixes and the man of the match award.