Chennai, April 29 : Riding on captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 98, Daryl Mitchell’s 52 and fast-bowler Tushar Deshpande’s superb four-wicket haul, defending champions Chennai Super Kings broke their two-match losing streak with a massive 78-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 46 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday night.

On a dry pitch, Gaikwad fell two runs short of becoming the second batter to hit back-to-back IPL centuries, while Mitchell got his maiden fifty in the tournament as the duo carried CSK to a huge 212/3 in 20 overs.

In reply, SRH were never in it to chase it down and were eventually bowled out for 134 in 18.5 overs, which is also their second straight attempt over not acing a batting second innings. Deshpande struck thrice in Power-play to pick IPL-best figures of 4-22 and lead a brilliant bowling performance for CSK.

Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman (two wickets each), Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur (one scalp each) were also amongst the wicket-takers for CSK.

The big victory is also CSK’s 50th IPL win at Chepauk and it takes them from sixth to third place on the points table, where they are now tied on 10 points with SRH, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals.

Gaikwad played risk-free shots and was solid in hitting 10 fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 181.48 in his 54-ball knock. Mitchell finally came good after a lean start to the tournament by smashing seven fours and a six in his 32-ball stay at the crease, apart from sharing a 107-run stand with Gaikwad.

Shivam Dube’s unbeaten 20-ball 39, laced with four sixes and a boundary was also helpful in CSK going past 200 on consecutive occasions.

Pushed into batting first, CSK had a cautious start as they hit only two boundaries in 2.1 overs. Ajinkya Rahane’s poor run continued as he miscued to mid-wicket off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Gaikwad and Mitchell hit six boundaries between themselves in the rest of the Power-play as CSK ended the phase at 50/1.

Mitchell finally hit CSK’s first six of the innings by lofting Cummins over long-off for six, followed by Gaikwad getting his fifty in 27 balls pulling the pacer for a maximum over deep mid-wicket fence. Mitchell upped his scoring version by driving, slicing, paddling, lofting and scooping to get his fifty off 29 balls.