Australian Shane Watson has hit a belligerent unbeaten century as Chennai Super Kings won their third Indian Premier League title with a thumping eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
It was a perfect comeback for Chennai after a two-year ban due to corruption charges.
Centurion: Shane Watson salutes his teammates after passing 100 runs in the IPL final.
Photo: Rafiq Maqbool
Chennai, playing in its seventh final in the popular Twenty20 tournament, had previously won back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011.
"Every win is special, so difficult to pick any one win," Chennai captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said on Sunday.
The 36-year-old Watson smashed 117 off 57 balls as Chennai cruised to 2-181 in 18.3 overs against a team known for successfully defending their total.
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Chennai Super King's player Shane Watson bats against Sunrisers Hyderabad during the IPL final.
Photo: Rafiq Maqbool
Earlier, after being put into bat, captain Kane Williamson (47) missed out on his ninth half-century in this year's IPL and Yusuf Pathan made an unbeaten 45 to lift Hyderabad's total to 6-178.
The 36-year-old Watson smartly orchestrated the run-chase by hitting 11 fours and eight sixes while keeping strike bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0-17) and Rashid Khan (0-24) wicketless.
Together with Suresh Raina, who scored 32, Watson featured in a 117-run second wicket stand and took the game away from Hyderabad.
Watson, who only scored his first run off his 11th delivery, took charge against seamer Sandeep Sharma (1-52) and Sidarth Kaul (0-43) with his exquisite pull shots and deft cuts.
"Things fell my way nicely tonight but to be able to do it in such a big game, it's very special," Watson said.
"After those first 10 balls, I was hoping to catch up … once the ball stopped swinging, it got easier."
The former Test allrounder raised his half-century off 33 balls with a six over midwicket off left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan.
He then smashed two fours and three successive sixes off Sandeep in the 13th over, which went for 27 runs as Williamson ran out of ideas over how to stem the flow of runs.
Watson completed his second IPL century of the season off 51 balls with a single at cover off Rashid's last over before smashing the Afghanistan legspinner for two consecutive boundaries.
Hyderabad's innings lost its momentum once opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan (26) was clean-bowled by Ravindra Jadeja in the ninth over with the total on 64.
New Zealand skipper Williamson became only the fifth batsman in IPL history to score more than 700 runs in a season but he was outfoxed by legspinner Karn Sharma and was stumped by Dhoni in the 13th over.
Williamson was the top-scorer in the tournament, with 735 runs at an impressive average of 52.50 and strike rate of 142.44.
"We thought it'll be a competitive total but the pitch did hold a bit," Williamson said.
"The boys are hurting at the moment but we've fought hard."
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