Finally, the much-anticipated cricketing event of the year so far provided the much-desired result: Chennai Super Kings (CSK), easily the team with the most number of supporters at almost all the cricketing arenas across the country and elsewhere, beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by an overwhelming margin of eight wickets and 9 balls to spare in last night’s grand finale at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

The win dashed the hopes of SRH, 2016 winners and led ably by Kane Williamson (in the absence of Aussie David Warner, who is serving a year-long ban in connection with the ball tampering saga), to win the coveted title. Cricket observers and commentators hadn’t written off SRH ahead of yesterday’s final and gave it a 50:50 chance to put it across CSK, a team of 30+ veterans but who struck form at the right time.

As it always happens invariably at important matches, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni called correctly at the toss and invited SRH to bat first. Opener Goswami got into a mix-up with Dhawan and was run out in the second over, brining the inform Kane Williamson to join Dhawan. The duo put on 51 runs in 6.3 overs before Dhawan misread a Jadeja delivery and was clean-bowled. Shakib Al Hasan and Kane took the score past 100 but Williamson was out soon after when he failed to read a googly from leggie Karn Sharma and was stumped by his opposite number, the inimitable Dhoni.

SRH kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but Yousuf Pathan and Carlos Brathwaite did some big hitting to take the score to 178/6, which was a par score at the Wankhede. Except Deepak Chahar (who went wicketless), all the bowlers – Ngidi, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma (who replaced Harbhajan Singh in the playing XI), Bravo and Jadega took a wicket apiece.

CSK had a rather sedate start while chasing 179 with an asking rate close to 9. It lost Du Plessis for 10 in the fourth over when they scored read just 16. Watson took 12 deliveries to score his first run, but once he got that, he got into an aggressive mood. A hamstring injury prevented him from bowling and he took a heavy toll of SRH bowlers as he and Raina added an imperious 117 runs off just 9.3 overs. Raina got out for 32 off 24 balls.

When Raina left, CSK needed only 46 runs in 6.3 overs, an ‘easy’ target in 20 overs. Ambati Rayudu joined Watson and the duo took only five more overs to finish things off. Watson remained unbeaten on a 57-ball 117 studded with eleven 4’s and eight huge 6’s. His injury ensured that he concentrated mostly on huge hitting, running only 25 of his runs. Watson singled out Siddharth Kaul, who has earned a place in the Indian ODI squad, hitting him for three successive sixes in an over.

On air, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar lamented that Kaul, who had always been a very economical bowler, had started leaking runs in the past few matches, ironically after he was elected to play for India. Rayudu hit the winning run in the 19 th over by cover-driving Brathwaite for a boundary, sparking off celebrations in the CSK dug-out as all the players ran into the field to complement Watson and break into a winning dance.

Fans were a touch disappointed that they couldn’t get to watch MSD bat and hit the winning runs as he invariably does. Watson was named the ‘Man of the Match’ for his match-winning effort. Sunil Naraine was awarded the ‘Player of the Series’ award for his all-round performance till the play-off stage.

CSK thus lifted its third title in seven attempts (the other two times being in 2010 and 2011 when it won back-to-back trophies) and equaled the Mumbai Indians’ record of winning the title thrice (in 2013, 2015 and 2017).

Brief scores:
SRH: 178/6 in 20 overs (Dhawan 26, Williamson 47, Shakib 23, Yusuf Pathan 45,Brathwaite 21, Ngidi 1-26) lost to CSK: 181/2 in 18.3 overs (Watson 117*, Raina 32, Brathwaite 1-27)

Awards given during the post-match presentation ceremonies are listed as below:
Man of the Match: Shane Watson (CSK)
Most Valuable Player of the Series: Sunil Naraine (KKR)
Most Successful Bowler (Purple Cap): Andrew Tye (KXIP)
Most Successful Batsman (Orange Cap): Kane Williamson (SRH)
Stylish player of the Series: Rishabh Pant (DD)
Super Striker of the Series: Sunil Naraine (KKR)
Emerging player of the Series: Rishabh Pant (DD)
Perfect Catch of the Series: Trent Boult (DD)
IPL Fairplay award: Mumbai Indians

IPL champions so far:
RR in 2008
DC in 2009
CSK in 2010, 2011 &; 2018
KKR in 2012 &; 2014
MI in 2013, 2015 &; 2017
SRH in 2016

Images Courtesy : IPLT20, BCCI