SUNRISERS Hyderabad eased to an eight-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings yesterday to inflict a fourth successive Indian Premier League (IPL) defeat on their opponents.
Chennai posted 154-7 from their 20 overs, with Moeen Ali top-scoring with 48 runs. Sunrisers surpassed the target with 14 balls remaining to pick up their first win of the season.
Abhishek Sharma played a key role for the Sunrisers with 75 off 50 balls, while Kane Williamson (32), Rahul Tripathi (39 not out) and Nicholas Pooran (five n.o.) also chipped in.
Put in to bat first, Super Kings had lost the wickets of Robin Uthappa (15) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (16) within the powerplay, and their innings was rather stop-start throughout.
Moeen aside, the struggling defending champions could not find any rhythm as Thangarasu Natarajan (2-30) and Washington Sundar (2-21) helped restrict them to a gettable target.
Mukesh Choudhary gave Super Kings hope when making a breakthrough with the wicket of Williamson, but Sharma cut down the gap between runs required and balls remaining.
The opener led the chase with a first IPL half-century before being dismissed in the 18th over, by which time he and Tripathi had already done much of the damage.
Tripathi finished off the run chase in style by hitting a four off Dwayne Bravo to get Sunrisers off the mark for the campaign.

SHARMA SHAKES IT UP
Sharma has come under pressure as an opener but more than delivered here, with his 75 runs consisting of five fours and three maximums.
He will be disappointed with the manner of his exit with just 10 runs required for victory, the young all-rounder caught by Chris Jordan when trying to hit a huge one.

SUPER KINGS LOSE AGAIN
Defending champions CSK have lost their first four IPL matches for only the second time, with the other instance coming in 2010 when, impressively, they went on to win the title.
On the basis of their displays so far, it will take some doing to repeat that feat of 12 years ago. (Sportsmax)