'Kings' Chennai crowned with 3rd IPL title

Opener Shane Watson's unbeaten ton helps Chennai lift third Indian Premier League title (IPL) as they defeated Hyderabad by eight wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.

While chasing 179 runs target, Watson played a superb knock and smashed 117 runs in 57 balls, which includes seven fours and eight sixes.

With this century, Watson became the second batsman in IPL history to score a century in a final.

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Hyderabad had almost lost the game after Watson slammed 26 runs in five legal deliveries off Sandeep Sharma, including three sixes on the trot.

Chennai achieved the target in just 18.3 overs with eight wickets in hand and nine deliveries to spare.

Opting to chase after winning the toss, Chennai were in a spot of bother early on as openers Watson and Faf du Plessis began on a slow note, scoring just 20 runs off the first five overs.

However, Watson along with Suresh Raina took the team out of the crises.

Earlier, Hyderabad scored a decent 178 for six against the 'Yellow Brigade'.

Skipper Kane Williamson left behind his poor form and played a captain's knock to settle the team.

Unlike other games, Kane took few balls to settle and then went for big shots. He made 47 runs in 36 balls which included five fours and two sixes.

He fell just three runs short to reach his 9th IPL half-century and gave away his wicket to Karn Sharma.

Later it was Yusuf Pathan and Carlos Brathwaite's cameos which helped Hyderabad cross the 150 runs mark. Pathan remained unbeaten and made 45 runs in just 25 balls. His inning included four boundaries and two sixes.

Brathwaite, on the other hand, smashed three sixes to reach 21 runs in 11 balls.

However, he gave away his wicket on the last ball of Hyderabad's innings while trying to hit another six for the team.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan too contributed 26 runs.

For Chennai, apart from Deepak Chahar, every other bowler took one wicket apiece. While it was Bravo who turned out to be the costliest today, as he gave 46 runs in his four overs.

MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to field bowl against Hyderabad.

The two teams faced each other for the fourth time in this year's edition, with all the games being won by Chennai.