Sunrisers Hyderabad came into the match against Chennai Super Kings fully aware that another defeat could make their task of going through to the play-offs difficult.
Led by a determined showing from their bowlers, SRH were able to restrict CSK to a below-par 154/7 in their 20 overs before Abhishek Sharma's fluent half-century helped them outclass the defending champions by eight wickets.
This was SRH's first win in IPL 2022 after two straight losses, while CSK suffered their fourth defeat of the tournament.
Having won the toss, SRH elected to bowl and their pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen did extremely to keep things tight in the first few overs.
Off-spinner Washington Sundar's early introduction paid off he struck off the first delivery, getting the key wicket of the experienced Robin Uthappa with his first delivery of the match. Uthappa, who made 15, tried to break free as he attempted the slog sweep but ended up getting caught on the leg side in the fourth over.
T Natarajan also struck with his first ball of the game, with the wicket of the struggling Ruturaj Gaikwad. Gaikwad scored 16 from 13 balls before he was done in completely by a beauty from Natarajan, who bowled him with a cracking inswinger.
CSK were 41/2 in six overs, having lost both their openers inside the Powerplay. That proved to be quite crucial as they were unable to recover from the lacklustre start.
Ambati Rayudu (27) and Moeen Ali (48) put on 62 runs for the third wicket before CSK lost three wickets in the space of 13 balls.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni managed just three before his successor Ravindra Jadeja stroked a quickfire 23 from 15 balls to rally CSK past the 150 run mark.
In contrast, SRH Openers Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson laid the platform with a 89 run opening stand. Abhishek stroked a career-best 75 from 50 balls, while Rahul Tripathi blasted 39 from 15 balls as SRH cruised to an eight wicket victory, with 14 balls to spare.
