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IPL 2018: Rayudu scores 100 as CSK beat SRH

When you look at Sunrisers Hyderabad’s record of defending low totals in IPL 2018, you would think they would cruise to victory after having scored 179/4 batting first. However, you must also look at a decade-old history of Chennai Super Kings, who haven’t lost consecutive matches many times in the Indian Premier League. They almost always bounce back after a win!

Yesterday, Chennai won the toss and elected to field first, with Sam Billings being given another chance and Deepak Chahar coming back after an injury forced him out for quite a few games. He was brilliant on return and ended with figures of 1/16 in his four overs, going at a miserly 4 runs per over while the rest were hit all around the park.

Shikhar Dhawan backed up his match-winning innings of the last game with another good knock of 79(49), while Williamson also got consecutive fifties, scoring 51(39). Once again, SRH displayed their over-dependence on these two batsmen as none of the other batsmen made valuable contributions.

With SRH defending scores as low as 118 in IPL 2018, most would’ve put their money on the away team at the halfway stage. However, the Chennai openers started blasted everything that was in their arc. Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu ensured that not a lot of CSK batsmen would be troubled yesterday.

Watson brought up another IPL fifty and Rayudu continued his hot run this season, making his best ever IPL season into an even better one and recording his maiden IPL century – 100(62)*. MSD then walked out and hit an unbeaten 20 in 14 balls to take his team to an 8-wicket victory. He recorded his 8th not out of the season and his IPL 2018 average is now a remarkable 103.25. Man of the Match: Ambati Rayudu.

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