Speaking to the broadcasters after the game, Super Kings’ captain MS Dhoni also identified RR’s batting in the power play as the key point in the game while Dhoni also praised Jaiswal and Jurel for their batting and pointed out that the first six overs made the difference.
The middle overs are typically where Chennai Super Kings’ bowling shines, taking away the momentum of an opponent’s inning. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a half-century in just 26 balls, giving Rajasthan Royals a commanding 64/0 in the power play.
This is his third half-century in five innings against CSK. He continued to attack in the middle overs, trying to sustain the momentum created in the first six. CSK tried to pull it back with some tight bowling as they had the Royals at 139/3 after 15 overs.
The Royals had only reached 153/4 by the end of the 17th over and had also lost Shimron Hetmyer. At this point, CSK would have entertained hopes of keeping the Royals under 180, but that wasn’t to be as Dhruv Jurel (34 off 15) and Devdutt Padikkal (27* off 13) provided a blitz finish.
The Royals scored 49 runs in the last three overs to finish with the first-ever 200-plus total at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
As many as 62.87 percent of Royals’ runs against CSK in this game came in the power play and the death (16-20), 64 and 63 respectively in the two stages.
In the middle overs of CSK’s chase, they performed admirably, scoring eight runs more than the 75 runs the Royals had managed in their innings. However, the two teams’ performance in the power play and the death set them apart from one another.
CSK’s 42 with the bat in the first six and 45 in the last five overs meant they fell far short of the target to lose their sixth game in seven outings against the Royals since 2020.
Speaking to the broadcasters after the game, Super Kings’ captain MS Dhoni also identified RR’s batting in the power play as the key point in the game.
“It was quite a bit above par score. The reason was the first six overs, we gave away too many in the first six. At the same time, the wicket was best to bat on at that period. Then our bowlers bowled well in the middle overs but even when we were finishing, there were a few edges that went for boundaries, and that kept adding to the score. If I just go through it, maybe there were at least five or six boundaries with edges and that had a very big impact on the score. I think they got a par-plus score and we were not able to get a good start in the first six overs.”
In this game, Matheesha Pathirana turned out to be expensive, giving up 48 runs in his four overs without picking up a wicket. He bowled two overs in the death, conceding 33 runs. But Dhoni came to his defense.
“You have to accept it because you don’t look at the scorecard. What you are looking at is how the ball was delivered, where it was, and where the boundary went. These things help you make better decisions and I felt his bowling was very good, it was not like he bowled badly. Yes, there will be a few deliveries where the batsmen will play the big shot but other than that I think the scorecard doesn’t reflect how well he bowled.”
Dhoni also praised Jaiswal and Jurel for their batting while again pointing out that the first six overs made the difference.
“Yashasvi batted well, it was important to go after the bowlers and I think he took calculated risks. It felt it was slightly easy with our bowlers because they had to assess what is a good length to bowl. As a captain, you can tell them initially that you want to be slightly on the shorter side.”
“But it’s very difficult to calculate as to what is that shorter side. So I felt initially we gave away a few boundaries that were too up (on the fuller side) and then you are doing the catching up work. Still, I felt Yashasvi batted very well at the top and in the last few Jurel batted well. (But) I think it was in the first six that took the game away from us,”
he added.
Stephen Fleming, the Super Kings head coach, felt the team could not get going in their batting innings as the Royals’ bowlers used the change of pace to good effect at the start.
“We came up against a team that took the pace off the ball, so we couldn’t get any momentum in the first six overs. [Devon] Conway is in outstanding form as well but he couldn’t get underway, the rhythm of the innings was slow. And then when we tried to catch the game up we made mistakes. This is just pressure, it’s just good bowling. We did well with Dube to create a little bit of forward momentum and gave ourselves a small smite but it was just always a few overs too far.
