It was yet another nerve-wracking encounter as Chennai Super Kings held their nerves and stole a victory from Rajasthan Royals in the last delivery of the match. Mitchell Santner struck a last ball six of Ben Stokes to help CSK win the humdinger by 4 wickets and in the last delivery of the match. MS Dhoni as adjudged the Player of the Match for yet another brilliant knock under pressure.
After batting first, Rajasthan Royals posted a competitive 151 on the board in their allotted 20 overs. However, it was at least 10-15 runs short of a par total at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. Ajinkya Rahane and Jos Buttler got their franchise off to a good start but consistent wickets in the middle overs pegged them back.
Ben Stokes scored a watchful 28 of 26 deliveries but couldn’t quite push on the accelerator. Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the Chennai bowlers as he returned with two important wickets of Steve Smith and Rahul Tripathi. Medium pacers Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur also bagged a couple of wickets each to restrict Rajasthan to a reasonable score.
The final impetus was provided by Shreyas Gopal who struck an unbeaten 19 of 7 deliveries to get them over the 150 mark. Chennai Super Kings needed to get off to a good start but it wasn’t to be. The defending champions lost 4 quick wickets for just 24 runs. Dhawal Kulkarni removed Shane Watson with a peach of a delivery.
Wickets kept falling in a cluster as MS Dhoni joined Ambati Rayudu in the middle as his side was reeling at 24/4. From there on it was a great comeback from Chennai courtesy a 95 runs stand between MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu. The pair batted sensibly and found the gaps just when the required rate went up.
The loss of Rayudu was crucial but MS Dhoni’s presence still gave CSK a chance. Dhoni scored 58 of 43 deliveries before being castled by Ben Stokes in the final over of the match. It was Ravindra Jadeja who struck a brilliant six in the first delivery of the final over to turn the scale in CSK’s favour. Eventually, it was Mitchell Santner who smashed a final ball six to get the job done for the three-time champions.
Now here is what losing skipper Ajinkya Rahane said at the post-match presentation
I don’t think so (when asked if he’d have done anything differently). Credit to our bowlers, on that wicket I thought 150 was low. We should have batted better, on that wicket 170 would have been very good. We feel disappointed. It was about having the belief. We knew that if we take wickets in the powerplay, we’ll be in the game.
Fielding will be crucial, we did that pretty well. A lot to improve in the last 5-6 games. I’m sure guys will take it on and learn from these mistakes. Sanju was back and that was a plus point. Jaydev was bowling really well.
Prayag did really well in his first game. We got to find the balance right depending on the conditions. I still feel you need to win crunch situations in the T20 format. I’m really enjoying my role – lot to learn as well. This is a challenge for me. It’s about taking step by step. As a captain, it’s a different challenge altogether, but I’m enjoying it.