Yusuf Pathan turned back the clock by a few years, by smashing a 25-ball 45 to help Sunrisers Hyderabad to 178/6 against Chennai Super Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League 2018, at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
His 34-run partnership with Carlos Brathwaite (21) might prove to be the game-changer, though the CSK bowlers pulled things back a bit in the last two overs. SRH captain Kane Williamson—the tournament's leading run-scorer, with 735 runs—too, chipped in with an important innings of 47.
Lungi Ngidi was the pick of the CSK bowlers, with 1/26 in his four overs.
CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. SRH started off cautiously but lost opener Shreevats Goswami (5)—who came in for injured wicketkeeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha—in the second over, to a horrible mix-up with fellow opener Shikhar Dhawan (26).
Williamson and Dhawan then put on a 51-run partnership. However, soon after the strategic time-out, Ravindra Jadeja bowled Dhawan.
Williamson carried on the good work with Shakib al Hasan (23) for company, before being stumped by Dhoni off leg-spinner Karn Sharma. Shakib, too, followed a couple of overs later, hitting Dwayne Bravo straight to Suresh Raina.
With Deepak Hooda (3) falling soon after, it was left to Brathwaite and Pathan to take SRH to a fighting total with some lusty blows.
CSK made one change to the side that defeated SRH by two wickets in the qualifier 1 at the same venue on May 22, with Sharma replacing Harbhajan Singh. SRH made two changes, bringing in Goswami for Saha and replacing Khaleel Ahmed with Sandeep Sharma.
SRH had beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 14 runs in the qualifier 2 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on May 25 to enter the IPL final for the second time.
This is CSK's seventh appearance in an IPL final.