Vaas sees off rusty Chennai
Chaminda Vaas complemented a strong batting performance with a three-wicket haul as Hyderabad coasted to a 31-run win over Chennai.
Solid knocks from Andrew Symonds (50) and Herschelle Gibbs (45) and their third-wicket partnership of 95 lifted Hyderabad to a formidable 190 for four after skipper Adam Gilchrist chose to bat first in the Indian T20 Series on Sunday.
It's all about numbers
Vaas then claimed three for 21 as Chennai were restricted to 159 for nine, despite fighting performances from captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (42) and Albie Morkel (42 not out).
Gilchrist had launched into Chennai's new ball attack with customary brutality, clubbing Sudeep Tyagi for two sixes and a four and smacking Morkel for a six and two fours in the next over.
With Gilchrist going hammer and tongs, Dhoni brought his spinners on inside the powerplay and was rewarded with the breakthrough when Ravinchandran Ashwin bowled the former Australia skipper for 38.
Other opener VVS Laxman was then run out for 12 and the run-rate plummeted as Symonds and Gibbs shouldered the task of rebuilding.
Symonds had struggled to put bat to ball initially, but soon gained fluency and proved particularly destructive towards the end, reaching his second Indian T20 Series half-century off 43 deliveries.
By then Symonds had lost Gibbs - brilliantly run out by countryman Morkel - and Symonds too was run out leaving two new batsmen at the crease for the final couple of overs.
Rohit Sharma (18 not out) and Tirumalasetti Suman (10 not out) maintained the momentum as they pushed Hyderabad to a formidable total.
Vaas then destroyed Chennai's top order and derailed their chase with three strikes in the space of seven deliveries.
Vaas first bowled opener Murali Vijay (three) with the first delivery of his second over with the new ball, had Suresh Raina (six) caught behind off the fourth delivery and then snared the prized scalp of Matthew Hayden (17) with the first delivery of his third over.
Chennai lost more ground when Subramaniam Badrinath fell to Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner then nipping a blossoming partnership between Dhoni and Justin Kemp in the bud by having the South African stumped for 22.
Dhoni briefly took the fight to Hyderabad, but with his demise in the 15th over - bowled by part-time spinner Symonds - it was all over bar the shouting.
Teams:
Chennai: Murali Vijay, Matthew Hayden, Suresh Raina, Justin Kemp, MS Dhoni (C) (W), Subramaniam Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sudeep Tyagi, Muttiah Muralidaran, Lakshmipathy Balaji
Hyderabad: Adam Gilchrist (C) (W), VVS Laxman, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, Anirudh Singh, Tirumalsetti Suman, Chaminda Vaas, Jaskaran Singh, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha
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