Cheni, April 11: New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum continued his rich World Cup form, smashing his second Indian Premier League (IPL) century (56-ball 100 not out), to ensure Cheni Super Kings (CSK)'s second successive league match victory - beating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 45 runs - in the tourment at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday.
The destructive batsman's latest belligerent knock powered the two-time IPL champions to a comfortable win. McCullum earlier scored IPL's first century (158 not out) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first edition of the T20 tourment.
After their batsmen set the Sunrisers a huge target of 210 runs, CSK bowlers complemented their batters to contain SRH's reply, restricting them to 164/6.
SRH got off to a brisk start but after India opener Shikhar Dhawan's dismissal (28) they didn't seem like coming close to chasing down the stiff target despite the valiant effort of Australian opener David Warner (53).
Earlier, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat and his decision was fully backed by McCullum who batted throughout the innings, bludgeoning seven fours and nine massive over boundaries.
The right-hand dasher guided New Zealand to the World Cup fils only losing to champions Australia and he was at it again blasting the hapless SRH bowlers to all corners of the ground.
He put on a 75-run opening wicket stand with West Indian Dwayne Smith (27) and followed it up with a 60-run second-wicket partnership with newly married Suresh Rai (14).
That set up a strong platform for CSK to post a strong total and the McCullum-Dhoni third-wicket stand capitalised on it superbly, putting on a 63-run partnership.
Dhoni took over the mantle of big-hitting from McCullum from there and contributed 53 runs of the third-wicket stand, hitting four boundaries and as many sixes. IANS
SCOREBOARD
Cheni Super Kings:
DR Smith run out (Boult) 27, BB McCullum not out 100, SK Rai run out (Rahul) 14, MS Dhoni*† c Warner b Boult 53, RA Jadeja run out (Boult) 0, DJ Bravo not out 0
Extras (lb 7, w 4, nb 4) 15; Total (4 wickets; 20 overs) 209
Fall of wickets 1-75, 2-135, 3-198, 4-19
Bowling: B Kumar 4 0 31 0, TA Boult 4 0 34 1, I Sharma 3 0 46 0, KV Sharma 4 0 51 0, RS Bopara 4 0 29 0, Parvez Rasool 1 0 11 0
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
DA Warner*c Smith b Pandey 53, S Dhawan c Jadeja b Sharma 26, KL Rahul b Sharma 5, NV Ojha† c Sharma b Ashwin 15, RS Bopara b Bravo 22, KS Williamson not out 26, KV Sharma c Rai b Bravo 4, Parvez Rasool not out 2
Extras (lb 7, w 4) 11; Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 164
Fall of wickets 1-30, 2-46, 3-91, 4-114, 5-136 , 6-150
Bowling: A Nehra 4 0 31 0, MM Sharma 4 0 36 2, IC Pandey 3 0 26 1, R Ashwin 4 0 22 1, DJ Bravo 4 0 25 2, RA Jadeja 1 0 17 0