SRH all but end CSK’s chances

Chennai, April 25: 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), after his brain fade against Mumbai Indians, played a responsible hand at the top before Kamindu Mendis (32) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (19) 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.
The confidence of CSK batters has been shot to pieces and the lack of a collective effort from their bowlers only compounded the problems.
Harshal, who cleverly used the change of pace, was complemented well by skipper Pat Cummins (2/21), ambidextrous spinner Kamindu (1/26), veterans Mohammed Shami (1/28) and Jaydev Unadkat (2/21).
Dewald Brevis (42) was the top scorer while Deepak Hooda (22) played some lofty shots towards the end to take CSK past 150-run mark.
Drafted into the side, Brevis was in destructive mood as he clobbered Harshal for another six before being brilliantly caught by a diving Kamindu at long off.
However, CSK continued to lost wickets in a heap and after Shivam Dube was holed out by Abhishek at long-on off Unadkat, Mahendra Singh Dhoni came in for his 400th T20 match, but he too failed to fire as the veteran batter slashed a Harshal delivery straight to Abhishek at point.
Towards the end, Hooda tried his best to lift the innings and managed to take CSK past 150. (PTI)