New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum continued his rich World Cup form, smashing his second Indian Premier League (IPL) century to ensure Chennai Super Kings’ second successive league match victory, a 45-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday.
The destructive batsman’s latest belligerent knock powered the two-time IPL champions to a comfortable win. McCullum earlier scored IPL’s first century (158 not out) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first edition of the T20 tournament.
After their batsmen set the Sunrisers a huge target of 210 runs, CSK bowlers complemented their batsmen to contain SRH’s reply, restricting them to 164/6.
SRH got off to a brisk start but after India opener Shikhar Dhawan’s dismissal (28) they didn’t seem like coming close to chasing down the stiff target despite the valiant effort of Australian opener David Warner (53).
Warner, who scored his fifty in just 42 balls, battled lonely in the middle even as others failed to convert their starts. Dhawan made 26 off 18 balls, while Naman Ojha (15) and Ravi Bopara (22) too could not deliver in the face of some disciplined bowling from the Super Kings.
Warner hit three sixes and a boundary before he became Pandey’s victim. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was miserly in his four-over spell, conceding just 22 runs for the wicket of Ojha. Dwayne Bravo was the most successful bowler for CSK, returning economical figures of 2/25, while Mohit Sharma had 2/36.
However, it was Ishwar Pandey who took the most important wicket of Warner. Kane Williamson, who made his IPL debut in this match, surprisingly came into bat at number six and remained unbeaten on 26 from 18 balls.
Earlier, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat and his decision was fully backed by McCullum who batted throughout the innings, bludgeoning seven fours and nine massive sixes.
The right-handed dasher guided New Zealand to the World Cup finals before losing to champions Australia and he was at it again blasting the hapless SRH bowlers to all corners of the ground.
He put on a 75-run opening wicket stand with West Indian Dwayne Smith (27) and followed it up with a 60-run second-wicket partnership with Suresh Raina (14).
That set up a strong platform for CSK to post a strong total and the McCullum-Dhoni third-wicket stand capitalised on it superbly, putting on a 63-run partnership. Dhoni took over the mantle of big-hitting from McCullum from there and contributed 53 runs of the third-wicket stand, hitting four boundaries and as many sixes.
Batting on 89 at the start of the final over, McCullum saw Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja being dismissed off successive balls before hitting a six and a four to reach 99. Off a full length delivery by his New Zealand team-mate and left-arm pacer Trent Boult, McCullum jabbed it to the covers for a single to bring up a well-deserved century.
Boult also made his IPL debut in this match that also saw fast bowler Dale Steyn missing out for Sunrisers.