IPL 2018, SRH vs CSK Qualifier 1: Faf du Plessis' master knock seals final spot for Chennai

Chennai Super Kings defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Qualifer-1 of the Indian Premier League 2018 by 2 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in an incredible nail biting match.

“It's a stadium I've enjoyed playing. Took confidence from that. I just got in the change room now and said, how did we win that game. It felt just a little out of reach. It was great that guys came in and hit a few boundaries at the end,” said a jubilant Faf du Plessis after a win over SRH in the Qualifer 1 of IPL.

Both the heavyweights of the gigantic tournament clashed in a heavy affair of nerves, determination, character and talent. Williamson-led Sunrisers were against the ‘Big Daddys’ of the tournament, that is what this Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings outfit is, with a plethora experience and character available in and around the dressing room.

After winning the toss, Chennai Super Kings chose to field first, decision which looked perfect in the first half of the match. CSK started the match with the big wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, who departed for a golden duck.

What followed Dhawan was series of quick wickets, with Goswami, Williamson, Manish Pandey and Shakib Al Hasan following him back to the dugout. The only saving grace for SRH’s batting were a brilliant quickfire knock by Carlos Brathwate (43* off 29) and a gutsy 29 off 24 by Yusuf Pathan, and that helped SRH to mount a total of 140 for the Chennai Super Kings.

Chennai’s start was sort of similar to that of Hyderabad’s, the only difference was the man from South Africa - Faf du Plessis. He opened the innings with Shane Watson, who departed for a duck early in the innings. Faf then witnessed a quickfire cameo by Suresh Raina (22 off 13) and then followed quick departures of Rayudu, Dhoni, Bravo, Jadeja.

Later after the 16^th over, Faf started opening his arms to cut down the total as much as possible for the last two overs. Harbhajan Singh was toiling around with him trying to nick a single or two.

In the 18^th over, Faf tonked Brathwate for a couple of maximums. And in the 19^th over, Shardul Thakur got 3 crucial boundaries for the Chennai outfit.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the final over to bowl, but by then SRH needed only 6 runs to win, which Faf completed in the very first over.

Chennai Super Kings are the first finalist of the IPL 2018, SRH will face the winner of Eliminator-1 between KKR vs RR to be played today.