Newshour Press

On the back of Shane Watson’s unbeaten 117, Chennai Super Kings defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets in the final of Indian Premier League (IPL) at the iconic Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. The 11^th edition of IPL witnessed some fascinating contests, but the final match proved to be a lop-sided affair.

Earlier, Sunrisers scored 178 runs on a flat pitch, which was never going to be enough for them against a batting-heavy CSK. They started rather cautiously in the first 6 overs, but Kane Williamson’s 47 and Yusuf Pathan’s 45 not out propelled SRH to 178. Ravinder Jadeja and Lungi Ngidi impressed with the ball. Ngidi bowled well in the death to contain the big hitting Carlos Braithwaite from repeating the heroics of 2016 T20 WC at the same ground.

It was off to Faf Du Plessis and Watson to start the chase for CSK. However, Faf Du Plessis wasn’t able to repeat the performance of the qualifier against SRH. At one point, SRH were sitting on top as CSK could only muster 20 runs from the first 5 overs. But, the things changed very quickly as Shane Watson took the attack to the bowlers scoring 117 not out to seal the deal.  He took ten deliveries to open his account, but did not look back after that to hand CSK an easy win in the final of IPL.

Only Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar could impress with their bowling, as all other SRH bowlers were taken to the cleaners. At the end of 14 overs, the match was already done and dusted, with CSK needing less than 7 runs an over. But, for Watson, the magical moment was getting to his hundred in the most important fixture. Even after getting to his hundred, the champion took his team over the line by finishing the game, while battling a hamstring injury.

CSK have won the title 3^rd time in the history of IPL. This was also the 4^th time that the men in yellow were able to defeat SRH in this year’s edition.