Twitter Reactions: Abhishek Sharma's sparkling 75 dumps CSK to their fourth consecutive loss

Sunrisers Hyderabad have got off the mark in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season beating Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets. It was a pretty one-sided game at the DY Patil Stadium with Abhishek Sharma leading the way for the Orange Army with the bat, smashing 75 runs off 50 balls in a 155-run chase. CSK, on the other hand, tried their best on the day but the lack of wicket-taking bowlers in the line-up haunted them as they continue to wait to get two points on the board this season.

Chasing 155, SRH just needed a steady start from their openers and for the first time in the season, Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson started well. The duo clicked in unison with the former taking on the initiative to score runs in the powerplay. The SRH skipper took the backseat and played second fiddle to him as they added 89 runs for the opening wicket in less than 13 overs. Though Mukesh Choudhary broke the partnership, SRH were always ahead in the game.

Perhaps, the arrival of Rahul Tripathi just eased things out for Abhishek who slammed a brilliant half-century. Tripathi just played his shots nonchalantly to take the opposition by surprise. Abhishek Sharma got out at the fag end of the innings with only 10 runs needed but not before scoring an impressive 75 as SRH got over the line pretty comfortably in the 18th over of the innings.

CSK somehow cross 150-mark batting first

Earlier, CSK’s troubles at the top of the order continued with Robin Uthappa getting out early in the innings. Ruturaj Gaikwad looked good for a brief period before T Natarajan breached his defence with a brilliant inswinger to start his spell. Then came a crucial 62-run partnership between Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu, but there was no expected pace to the innings with SRH bowling well in the middle overs. Moeen found his touch as he smacked a couple of terrific sixes but got out at the wrong time for CSK.

Even the set batter Rayudu was dismissed just before the England southpaw and despite sitting pretty well at 108/4 after 15 overs, CSK struggled to up the ante as expected. Shivam Dube didn’t repeat his heroics from the previous game while MS Dhoni also got out to a bouncer from debutant Marco Jansen. Ravindra Jadeja played a sparkling knock of 23 runs, taking on Natarajan in the penultimate over to propel his side past the 150-run mark.

CSK eventually ended on 154/7, scoring only 46 runs off the last five overs with all SRH bowlers faring decently on the day keeping the opposition batters under check. In the end, the score didn’t prove to be enough for the defending champions as they succumbed to their fourth consecutive loss of the season.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: