Chennai Super Kings won the first qualifier match against Sunrisers Hyderabad by 2 wickets sealing the berth to IPL 2018 final match. Sunrisers scored 139 runs batting first and being attacked with short balls. The match started with the first ball wicket of Shikhar Dhawan. Super Kings’ brilliant attack in the first inning was spearheaded by Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar and Ravindra Jadeja. By powerplay overs, Hyderabad lost three wickets and by the seventh, the team slogged to 50 runs for 4 wickets. Kane Williamson scored 24 off 15 balls, playing a short stretch.

This is the seventh time, Super Kings crashed into IPL final games. Bowlers from both the teams had an impressive play in the match. In fact, it was the bowlers dominating the match in both the inning, even if ending games were played by batsmen. By the 15^th over, Hyderabad were reeling in 88 for 6 wickets. Darren Bravo took down Yusuf Pathan in the over.

By the last stretch, Carlos Braithwaite delivered the much-needed push in the inning. He plundered a single four and four sixes scoring 43 off 29 balls. Despite these striking runs, the player became the most expensive in the chase. He bowled the 18^th over against Super Kings, which came out as the turning point. In the chase, Super Kings faced a similar attack slogging the inning at 92 for 7 by the 15^th over.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul and Rashid Khan struck the chase with impressive bowling. Kumar had Shane Watson down away in the first over, while Kaul sent back Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayadu in the fourth. The chase was at 24 for 3 wickets by the fourth over. MS Dhoni struggled against Rashid Khan. He lost his wicket right after coaching du Plessis how to play Rashid. The bowler toppled the captain with a brilliant wrong’un delivery.

The inning trickled to a narrow 43 runs to win from last three overs for Super Kings. Plessis started much slowly. He did not even play much in the first half of the inning. His strike caught momentum only by the 14^th over, when he plundered a four and six off Shakib Al Hasan. In the 18^th over, the batsman again sent Braithwaite for two fours and a six. Finally, Du Plessis hit a six off the first ball of the final over to seal a thumping victory while sparring 5 balls. Du Plessis scored 67 off 42 runs in the match.