Gaikwad propels CSK to top spot

Ruturaj Gaikwad's free-flowing 75 led the way as Chennai Super Kings cruised to a seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad to go top of the IPL table.

Gaikwad shared an attractive opening stand of 129 with in-form Faf du Plessis (56 off 38 balls) to put Chennai on track for a fifth straight win that leaves Sunrisers firmly at the foot of the table.

Sunrisers' total of 171-3 was built upon a second-wicket stand of 106 between David Warner (57 off 55) and Manish Pandey (61 off 46) but always looked below-par.

So it proved as Chennai reached their target with nine balls in hand despite Rashid Khan's 3-36, which included the wickets of Moeen Ali (15) and Du Plessis with his final two deliveries.

Sunrisers struggled to score at a decent lick following the early loss of Jonny Bairstow after choosing to bat.

The Englishman failed to cash in after being dropped down the leg-side by MS Dhoni on nought, scoring just seven before miscuing a pull off Sam Curran (1-30).

Pandey and Warner were unable to cut loose - the Australian in particular finding the fielders - but accumulated well enough to bring up their half-centuries off 35 balls and 50 balls respectively.

Warner, battling for timing, became the fourth man to score 10,000 T20 runs when he reached 40 and brought up his fifty with a six over midwicket off Ravindra Jadeja before falling to a wide Lungi Ngidi (2-35) delivery.

The South African seamer took his second wicket of the over when du Plessis leapt to his right on the boundary edge to send Pandey back with a fantastic, flying catch.