In a match befitting of a tournament final, Chennai Super Kings defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad to be crowned the champions of IPL 2018. The Chennai-based franchise have become the joint most successful team in the competition after winning their third IPL title. The Dhoni-led men have reestablished their dominance in the lucrative league by winning it just after returning from a two-year exile.

After being sent to bat first, SRH dealt an early blow as Shreevats Goswami was shown the way back to the pavilion following a run out. Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan then restored SRH’s innings with 51-run partnership and the latter got bowled out by Ravindra Jadeja for 26 runs.

Williamson then kept the score ticking alongside Shakib Al Hasan. The SRH skipper finally stopped on 47 after getting stumped off Karn Sharma. SRH then rode on a blitz from Yusuf Pathan, who remained unbeaten after a quick-fire innings of 45 off 25.

Meanwhile, Shakib’s departure at the hands of Dwayne Bravo, for 23 runs, was followed by Deepak Hooda’s dismissal by Lungi Ngidi for 3. Carlos Brathwaite provided proper support to Yusuf and made 21 from 11 deliveries before getting out by Shardul Thakur.

SRH now had 178/6 on the board and the onus was on the bowlers to safely guide the team home. However, that certainly was not the case as CSK derailed the arguably best bowling line-up of the tournament.

It all started with a maiden over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Faf du Plessis’ wicket fell in the fourth over and the bowler, Sandeep Sharma, was still unware of what was coming next. Watson, who didn’t open his account facing the eleventh ball, suddenly went all guns blazing and stitched a match-defining partnership with Suersh Raina which added 117 runs, off just 57 balls, to CSK’s total.

Raina was dismissed on 32 by Brathwaite, but the danger-man was still there, who eventually carried the team past the finishing line. Watson appeared to be in the form of his life and no bowler from the SRH camp were good enough to flee from the Australian’s wrath.

Launching an assault on the bowlers, Watson plundered eight sixes and 11 boundaries. And a century is obvious to a man’s name who has totaled 92 runs just by hitting boundaries. Ambati Rayudu, who scored 16 off 19, had certainly hit the boundary that made CSK the triumphant, but the man at the other end was the architect of the team’s success.

Watson remained unbeaten on a stunning 57-ball innings of 117 runs as CSK won the match by 8 wickets, with 9 balls to spare.

Could SRH win the contest by scoring some extra runs? Well, given the kind of performance Watson had offered, maybe SRH couldn’t win this even if they had gone past 200 runs. Despite leaking only 41 runs in the eight overs – which had two maidens in it – bowled by Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar, SRH conceded 140 runs in the other 10.3 overs and the bowling unit, that dominated in almost every match, certainly cost the hapless team a much-cherished title.

CSK have won against the table-toppers in four consecutive games this season and have bossed the battle of supremacy in style.