Watson’s unbeaten 117 powers CSK to third IPL title triumph
The final match of the IPL 2018 proved to be a one sided affair, with the help of Shane Watson’s unbeaten century (117 runs, 57 balls, 11 fours, eight sixes), Chennai Super Kings defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by a huge gap of 8 wickets. The match was dominated by Chennai Super Kings as they managed to lose only 2 wickets while chasing 179 runs in 18.3 overs. With the victory, Chennai has achieved the distinction of becoming the King of IPL for the third time. In response to the 179 runs given by Sunrisers, Chennai lost the wickets of Faf du Plessis (10) and Suresh Raina (32) only. Ambati Rayudu, with an unbeaten 16, with the help of Watson, brought the team to victory. In the match played at the Wankhede stadium, the Sunrisers batted first on the invitation of Chennai, with captain Kane Williamson’s 47 and Yusuf Pathan’s unbeaten 45, helped them score 178 in 20 overs, losing 6 wickets in 20 overs, but the score proved to be insignificant in front of Watson. As a result of the title win, Chennai Super Kings got prize money of Rs 20 crore, while Sunrise had to satisfy itself with a prize money of Rs 12 crore and 50 lakhs.
Watson proved to be the greatest factor in this win of Chennai. Star ballers like Rashid Khan, Bhubaneswar Kumar and Siddharth Kaul also had no answer to Watson’s onslaught. Watson was declared the Man of the Match for his stormy innings. Chennai had earlier been IPL champions in the year 2010 and 2011. Sunrisers captain Kane Williams, who scored 735 runs in 16 matches of the tournament, took the Orange Cap while the Kings Eleven Punjab’s Andrew Tye (24 wickets) got a purple cap. Super striker of the season KKR’s Sunil Narine and stylish player of the season went to Delhi Daredevils’ Rishabh Pant. The award of Perfect Catch of the Season was given to Trent Boult of Delhi Daredevils while the IPL Fairplay award was received by Mumbai Indians.
