MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly
Photo by: Rahul Gulati /SPORTZPICS for BCCI

Chennai Super Kings made a superb comeback to script an emphatic win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) by four wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. With 12 points now, they have strengthened their grip at the top of the points table.

Defending a small target, Rajasthan Royals got off to the best possible start. Dhawal Kulkarni bowled a wicket-maiden to start of the second innings. He castled the timber of Shane Watson with a peach of a delivery to give a perfect start. To make things worse for the defending champions, Suresh Raina got run out in the second over. Kulkarni kept the pressure which forced Faf du Plessis to play a pull shot only to find Rahul Tripathi in the deep square-leg.

Striving at 15 for three at the end of four overs, Chennai Super Kings struggled to come out of pressure. Rajasthan Royals bowlers kept asking questions off Ambati Rayudu, and Kedar Jadhav and ultimately Jadhav fell prey to Jofra Archer. The defending champions could only pull off 24 runs at the loss of four wickets at the end of the powerplays. Since then, MS Dhoni combined with Ambati Rayudu to bail their side out of trouble. They mostly focused on ones and two’s as they notched 50 runs for the loss of four wickets at the end of 10 overs.

IPL 2019: Match 25, RR vs CSK – Twitter Erupts as Chennai Super Kings Scripts an Emphatic Victory 1
BCCI

Soon after that, the duo started to accelerate taking debutant Riyan Parag for 14 runs. MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu stretched the game from where it almost looked impossible for a fight back. They added 95 runs for the fifth wicket before Rayudu departed after a well-made knock of 57 runs. Despite that, Dhoni continued to go strong and brought the equation to 18 runs off the last six balls. Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner went hard against Ben Stokes to bring an emphatic victory over Rajasthan Royals.

Clinical effort from Chennai bowlers

Previously, a last over resurgence from Shreyas Gopal helped Rajasthan Royals finish with the momentum. He smacked 18 runs off the 20th over from Shardul Thakur to post 151 runs at the end of 20 overs. However, Chennai Super Kings dominated most of the game after an early flurry of runs. Jos Buttler and Ajinkya Rahane gave a flying start adding 25 runs in the first two overs. But Deepak Chahar removed Rahane in the third over to draw the first blood which triggered a collapse.

IPL 2019: Match 25, RR vs CSK – Twitter Erupts as Chennai Super Kings Scripts an Emphatic Victory 2
IPL

The home side lost wickets at regular intervals while the runs dried up. The Rajasthan Royals batters once again failed to capitalise on the starts which hurt the team’s chances badly. While Mitchell Santner dismissed Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja got the better of Rahul Tripathi and Steven Smith. In the process, he also completed his 100th IPL wickets to became the first left-arm spinner to achieve so. Wickets kept tumbling, but a patient knock from Ben Stokes and a last over resurgence from Shreyas Gopal helped them post 151 runs.

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Ankush Das

I am an accountant by qualification, my parents thought their obedient son would study further to become a CA, but I had other things in mind. An ardent Cricket fan is following his passion and making...