In an exciting finish, Rajasthan Royals (RR) managed to record a narrow victory by three runs against four-time champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in their home ground of MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday night.
After batting first and scoring a competitive total of 175/8 in their 20 overs, Rajasthan Royals managed to keep their nose in control and prevent MS Dhoni and his team to record a victory as they clinched a narrow win for themselves in an exciting finish, restricting Chennai Super Kings to 172/6 in their 20 overs.
In the end, it was a wrong decision made by Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni to invite Rajasthan Royals to bat first as the pitch at the Chennai ground supported spin bowling and his batsmen could not find runs against the spinners from Rajasthan Royals which included India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
For Rajasthan Royals, their wicket-keeper batsmen and the captain of England’s ODI and T20 teams Jos Buttler scored 52 from 36 balls with the help of three sisters and one boundary whereas Devdutt Padikkal made 38 from 26 balls with the help of five boundaries. Ravichandran Ashwin did well with the bat to make 30 from 22 balls hitting two sixes and 14 whereas Shimron Hetmyer made as many runs from just 18 balls with the help of two boundaries and two sixes.
Rajasthan Royals finished at a competitive total of 175/8 in their 20 overs with Chennai Super Kings first bowler Aakash Singh, Tushar Deshpande and Ravindra Jadeja taking two wickets each whereas Moeen Ali contributed with one wicket.
For Chennai super Kings, their star batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad could not make big runs in the contest as he was dismissed for just 8 but Devon Conway scored a quality 50 from 38 balls with six fours and Ajinkya Rahane, batting at number three, scored 31 from just 19 balls with two fours and a six.
However the middle order batsmen for Chennai Super Kings could not make a mark as Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu what dismissed for 8, 7, and 1 respectively which hurt their chances bedtime
The pair of Ravichandran Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni did well to take Chennai Super Kings close to the target but they could not win the game for their side.
Ravindra Jadeja made 25 not out from 15 balls with two sixes and a four whereas the legendary MS Dhoni could not get a boundary on the last ball of the game but he did extremely well to finish at 32 not out from 17 balls with three sixes and one four.
For the Rajasthan Royals, Ravichandran Ashwin took 2/25 from his four overs whereas Yuzvendra Chahal also produced a disciplined performance with the ball, giving away just 27 runs to take two wickets from his former. Adam Zampa was expensive, being hit for 43 runs for just one wicket whereas Sandeep Sharma, a bowl the final over of the match, took 1/30.