IPL 2015: Brendon McCullum-powered CSK dwarf Sunrisers Hyderabad
Chennai, April 11 (IANS) New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum continued his rich World Cup form, smashing his second Indian Premier League (IPL) century (56-ball 100 not out), to ensure Chennai Super Kings (CSK)'s second successive league match victory - beating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 45 runs - in the tournament at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday.
The destructive batsman's latest belligerent knock powered the two-time IPL champions to a comfortable win. McCullum earlier scored IPL's first century (158 not out) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first edition of the T20 tournament.
After their batsmen set the Sunrisers a huge target of 210 runs, CSK bowlers complemented their batters to contain SRH's reply, restricting them to 164/6.
SRH got off to a brisk start but after India opener Shikhar Dhawan's dismissal (28), they didn't seem like coming close to chasing down the stiff target despite the valiant effort of Australian opener David Warner (53).
Earlier, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat and his decision was fully backed by McCullum who batted throughout the innings, bludgeoning seven fours and nine massive over boundaries.
The right-hand dasher guided New Zealand to the World Cup finals only losing to champions Australia and he was at it again blasting the hapless SRH bowlers to all corners of the ground.
He put on a 75-run opening wicket stand with West Indian Dwayne Smith (27) and followed it up with a 60-run second-wicket partnership with newly married Suresh Raina (14).
That set up a strong platform for CSK to post a strong total and the McCullum-Dhoni third-wicket stand capitalised on it superbly, putting on a 63-run partnership.
Dhoni took over the mantle of the big hitting from McCullum from there and contributed 53 runs of the third-wicket stand, hitting four boundaries and as many sixes.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 209/4 (B McCullum 100 not out, MS Dhoni 53; T Boult 1/34), Sunrisers Hyderabad 164/6 (D Warner 53, S Dhawan 26; D Bravo 2/25, M Sharma 2/36)