Sent in to bat by SunRisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings's batting looked a completely different outfit, as their batters put on huge 202 for 2 in their 20 overs at the MCA stadium in Pune.
On a wicket that was good for batting, SunRisers would have fancied themselves chasing down the total, but by keeping wickets in hand.
SRH Openers Kane Williamson and young Abhishek Sharma put the skates on and got off to a blistering start.
Mukesh Choudhary and debutant Simranjeet Singh were taken to the cleaners in the first two overs before spinner Mitchell Santner was plundered for 12 runs in his opening over. It was an over that could have changed the complexion early on itself had Choudhary not spilled a catch at mid-off offered by a rampaging Abhishek, who was on 20 off 11 balls then.
Williamson allowed Abhishek to take to the attack as he relished creaming the medium pacers to the odd boundary each over.
The introduction of spinner Maheesh Theekshana put a break on the big shots and the batters could only take 6 runs off the 5th over.
CSK Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought back Choudhary in the final over of the Powerplay. He gave 6 runs off the first four deliveries off singles and twos and then he vindicated his skipper's decision of bringing him back for another spell.
Choudhary first had Abhishek caught in the deep while he tried to pull a short and wide delivery, out for 39.
Rahul Tripathi was the new man in and was out first ball as he tried the upper cut, but with no room to play, he had no control over the placement and handed a catch straight to Simranjeet at short third man.
With the required run rate mounting, SRH were looking to go big and lost Aiden Markram and Williamson. Nicholas Pooran then had Shashank Singh for company and they kept working away the singles and twos, slowing building up a partnership with the odd boundary.
Just when Shashank was looking to take off, Choudhary bowled a short ball, angled across, Shashank stretched his arms to go after it, but got a fine edge on the way to Dhoni and he was out for 15.
Choudhary struck again after two deliveries, Washington Sundar trying to scoop the ball to the leg side only to get himself into an awkward position and playing the ball onto the stumps.
Choudhary's four strikes at crucial intervals put the brakes on the SRH scoring. The first two wickets changed the momentum of the game in CSK's favour.
His latter two strikes ensured that the task only got harder for SRH with Pooran waging a lone but losing battle as Hyderabad eventually fell short by 13 runs.
