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NEW DELHI: A vintage Shane Watson put up an exhibition of power-hitting in front of a packed Wankhede crowd as he struck a memorable unbeaten century to power Chennai Super Kings to their third Indian Premier League title. His unbeaten knock of 117 capped off a memorable night for CSK as they marked their return to IPL fold after a break of two years with a third title, equalling the record of Mumbai Indians.
AS IT HAPPENED | SCORECARD
Chasing 179, CSK overhauled the target in 18.3 overs, scoring 181/2.
That Watson would singlehandedly knock the winds out of SRH sails seemed a distant possibility when he played 10 straight dot balls before getting off the mark with a powerfully hit boundary straight past the bowler. He lost his opening partner Faf du Plessis (10) but then took over the stage providing a wholesome entertainment. His assault took flight in the final over of the Powerplay when he smacked a six and four off consecutive deliveries from Sandeep Sharma.
Earlier Yusuf Pathan and Carlos Brathwaite picked up the pace in the death overs to add 42 runs pushing the SRH to a competitive 178/6. Sunrisers have been unable to score quickly in the Powerplay overs since entering the qualifiers and the trend continued in the final too as they scored 42/1. In the absence of an injured Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami opened the innings alongside Shikhar Dhawan but a needless second run cost him his wicket on 5. After a relatively quiet Powerplay, Dhawan began opening up in the company of his captain Kane Williamson who crossed the 700-run mark, becoming the sixth batsman in IPL history to do so.
With runs hard to come by initially, the pressure of making the full use of fielding restrictions resulted in Dhawan and Williamson going after the bowlers. The initial exchanges went in their favours like a top-edge from Williamson flying over the fine leg boundary for a six but a more authoritative four a ball later set things in motion in the fifth over, bowled by Deepak Chahar. A six more in the next, this time by Dhawan, served as a confidence-booster. Soon the duo raised fifty-run stand but the introduction of Ravindra Jadeja broke their association as a quicker one got the better of Dhawan (26).