IPL Final 2018 – Match Highlights: Watson’s Century; CSK Win 3rd IPL Title

• The wait was over as it was time for the IPL Final 2018 as two of the strongest teams in this IPL faced each other in their race to the trophy.
• CSK and SRH faced each other in the IPL Final 2018 and it was a match between one of the strongest bowling Vs the strongest batting line-up of this season.
• The match was being held at Wankhede, a wicket that was going to support spin bowlers and both these teams had plenty of them in their arsenal.
• So, the toss was held and CSK won it and chose to field first. Sunrisers Hyderabad sent their openers namely Goswami and Dhawan made it to the crease.
• On the other hand, DL Chahar was given the new ball and the 1st innings went underway. No wickets came from the 1st over as both batsmen managed to get past Chahar.
• However, it was the 2nd over where a terrible mis-judgement from Goswami cost him his wicket as Dhoni took the bails off as SRH lost their first wicket.

• Dhawan was now joined by Kane Williamson as both batsmen looked to build a huge partnership to get things going for SRH.
• Williamson played brilliantly and managed to become the fifth player to score 700 runs in an IPL season as both players managed to share a 51-run partnership between them.
• But, this partnership didn’t last long as Jadeja struck in his 1st over as he uprooted Dhawan’s stumps and SRH were now 64/2 in 8.3 overs.

• Williamson was now joined by Shakib Al Hasan and both these batsmen went berserk as a 22-ball 37 run partnership was shared between them.
• CSK needed a wicket at this point and they got it as KV Sharma returned for his 2nd over to claim the prize wicket of SRH captain, Kane Williamson.

• Yusuf Pathan now joined Shakib and as the most senior player in this team he had now the responsibility of taking SRH to a big total.
• And he began delivering immediately as he shared a 32-run partnership with Shakib in which he scored most of the runs.
• Meanwhile, Shakib Al Hasan was also playing over a strike rate of 150, but CSK’s strike bowler Dwayne Bravo got him in the 16th over and SRH were now 4 wickets down.

• Deepak Hooda now joined Yusuf Pathan as both these batsmen now had to see only 4 overs left and SRH had only scored 134 runs on the board.
• Hooda had to show his talent at this point but he failed to do so as CSK’s newly found death bowler deceived the wicket-keeper batsman and got his wicket in the 17th over.

• Carlos Brathwaite now joined Yusuf Pathan in the middle and the pair now had to show their hitting prowess to take SRH to a modest total; which they did.
• The pair managed 38 runs from the last three overs, good but not what SRH was looking for as they only managed 178 runs in their 20 overs.
• Yusuf Pathan remained not out till the end and he hoped that his valuable contribution of 45 runs would serve as a match winning innings.

• Now it was the time for the 2nd innings and Chennai sent their openers Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis to the crease. Kumar was given the first over by Williamson and the 2nd innings went underway.
• Unsurprisingly, SRH began to bowl highly economical overs as they were not allowing CSK to get a good start.
• Watson was consuming a lot of dot balls and this built pressure on du Plessis as he got caught and bowled by Sandeep Sharma as CSK lost their 1st wicket of the match.

• Watson was now joined by Suresh Raina as Sunrisers looked to get another wicket. However, the opposite happened as the most crucial partnership of this match took place as Watson began to play aggresively and Raina began to support him.
• SRH tried everything but there was no stopping them as the pair brought up their 100-run partnership to put CSK in the driving seat.

• Even after that massive partnership both players went on and added another 17 runs on the board as CSK looked in no mood of losing this match.
• But, the short ball trick finally worked against Raina as Brathwaite took his wicket and ended this 117-run stand.

• Now Ambati Rayudu joined Watson who was now nearing his century and SRH needed a couple of wickets to get back into this match.
• SRH tried everything and every bowler but CSK didn’t lost any more wickets as Watson reached his century and eventually won the match for his team.

• SRH were outperformed in the IPL Final 2018 as CSK batting line-up led by Shane Watson’s century allowed them to lift their 3rd IPL trophy after a period of 6 years.
• Shane Watson was awarded the man of the match for his match winning century.

End of IPL Final 2018 (CSK Vs SRH): That is the end of this match and this IPL season. Do join allsportspk next year for IPL 2019.

B Kumar

CR Brathwaite

DJ Hooda (Wk.)

KS Williamson (Cpt.)

Rashid Khan

S Dhawan

S Kaul

SP Goswami

Sandeep Sharma

Shakib Al Hasan

YK Pathan

AT Rayudu

DJ Bravo

DL Chahar

F du Plessis

KV Sharma

L Ngidi

MS Dhoni (Cpt.) (Wkt.)

RA Jadeja

SK Raina

SN Thakur

SR Watson