Playing his first match of the season, Shikhar Dhawan smashed his way to a scintillating 63 as Sunrisers Hyderabad recovered from early jolts to post a competitive 159 for six against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match, here today.
Hyderabad scored 59 runs in the last four overs and that propelled them to a fighting total. Ashish Reddy played a very useful unbeaten cameo of 36 and his 43-run partnership with Dhawan was crucial in their revival.
Dhawan's unbeaten knock came off 45 balls with 10 shots to the fence while Reddy's 36 came off 16 balls with two fours and three sixes.
Dhawan was out of field for some time after taking a ferocious hit on his groin off Dwayne Bravo and in that time Reddy did a pretty good job for his side.
At one time, it looked that there would be no end to Hyderabad's batting woes but inclusion of Dhawan, who missed first seven games due to a hand fracture, lifted the side.
More than the bowling it was exceptional fielding that gave Chennai two early wickets. Murali Vijay took a firmly-hit but uppish shot by Quinton de Kock (4) at mid-on off Mohit Sharma while Suresh Raina's direct hit from covers area sent back Hanuma Vihari (2).
Much depended Dhawan and the left-hander did not disappoint his side. He drove, pulled and cut effortlessly the Chennai pacers -- Mohit and Holder.
Dhawan carried on from where he had left while playing against Australia in India's Test series.
He unleashed a few boundaries to give provide impetuous to his side's innings but lost Cameron (2) from the other end when his skipper edged one behind off Mohit.
Dhawan was batting well from one end, holding fort, but Hyderabad kept losing wickets as Amit Mishra too departed after a short stay, during which he scored 15 runs.
But the biggest blow to Hyderabad was dealt when Dhawan took a blow on his groin off Bravo and had to leave the field. He was batting on a solid 44 at that time in the 14th over of the innings.
