IPL 2018 Final, Highlights: Watson powers Chennai Super Kings to title

Chennai Super Kings players celebrate their IPL 2018 triumph

Mumbai, May 27: Chennai Super Kings topped their return to the IPL fold in the most perfect fashion - winning the 2018 title, their third IPL title overall, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets here at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday (May 27).

After winning the toss, the Super Kings asked Sunrisers to bat and they made a competitive 178/6. That would have tested some other teams in a huge occasion like a title clash but the Super Kings were unfazed and Shane Watson too.

The 36-year-old Watson played an innings (117 n.o., 57 balls, 11x4, 8x6) that had brain and brawn in equal measure to guide Super Kings' chase. The MS Dhoni-led side romped past the target - 179 - with nine balls to spare.

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Watson had the most sedate of beginnings, in fact the first 10 balls he faced were dots. His first run came through a boundary off Sandeep Sharma - a strong drive past the bowler. But even after that there was considerable pressure on the Super Kings to accelerate and Faf du Plessis fell in the same over, offering a return catch to Sandeep.

It was a wicket created out of the pressure generated from the inactivity of Watson. But in the company of Suresh Raina, Watson soon made amends for all those tough moments.

Man of the match Watson and Raina piled up 117 runs in a little over 10 overs to take the wind out of Sunrisers sailings. Once found his mojo, there was no stopping for Watson and Sandeep was in the eye of the storm.

Watson hammered him for 27 runs in the 13th over - 4, 6, 6, 6, 4 1(wide)- that killed the game as contest and after that over Super Kings needed 48 runs off 42 balls. It was a canter for a side like Super Kings that has a long batting line-up.

Raina played the role of a second fiddle to perfection, ensuring that Watson, who was hobbling in the second part of his innings, gets as much strike as possible. The dismissal of Raina to a short-pitched ball from Carlos Brathwaite was not even good enough to spark a celebration in Sunrisers ranks.

A glance at his stats of the day will tell you about the immense strength of Watson. But it will not reveal the thinking went behind the knock. The best chance of Sunrisers to make a comeback into the match was through leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who had such a big impact in the Qualifier 2 against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens.

In fact, Rashid has been their best bowler through the season and he had nearly bowled SRH to win in the Qualifier 1 at this venue against the CSK. But Watson and Raina just played out the Afghanistan lad (4-1-24-0) without giving him a wicket.

Once the threat of Rashid was nullified, Watson went after all other bowlers and pacer Siddarth Kaul, who had 21 wickets from 16 games, bore the brunt of Watson storm, conceding 43 runs from three overs.

Once Rashid was blunted and Kaul went for big runs, Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson could not find another miracle worker. But it was not all gloom for the Sunrisers once their innings ended.

Their top three - Williamson, Shikhar Dhawan and Shakib Al Hasan - got the start but could not convert them into more significant scores. For Sunrisers, it required cameos from Yusuf Pathan (45, 25b, 4x4, 2x6) and Brathwaite (21, 11b, 3x6) to power them to a competitive total.

Competitive it was. But on this night nothing could deny Chennai Super Kings their time under the light. Dad's Army? Dare you say that now?