The road is almost closed for Chennai Super Kings to reach the playoffs. Rajasthan Royals beat CSK by 7 wickets and are still surviving in the race of playoffs. Chennai managed to score only 125 runs in the game, that too with the help of decent innings by MS Dhoni (28) and Ravindra Jadeja (35*). Though RR had initial hiccups while chasing this total, Steve Smith (26*) and Jos Buttler (70*) made sure to give them a comfortable win by the end.
Chennai’s skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. They didn’t get a good start as Faf du Plessis got out in the third over. In the very next over, Shane Watson was dismissed as well. Within a gap of few overs, in-form Sam Curran also got out. Within a gap of 10 balls, Rayudu also got dismissed. At this point, Chennai’s score was 56/4. Then MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja played a sensible game on that slow surface and made a partnership of 51 runs. Finally, Dhoni got out in the 18th over. With the help of Jadeja’s inning, CSK managed to score 125/5 in 20 overs.
Chennai needed to take quick wickets to put Rajasthan Royals in trouble. They did exactly the same thing by dismissing Ben Stokes, Robin Uthappa and Sanju Samson inside the powerplay. Deepak Chahar bowled a fantastic spell of 2/18 in his four overs. When RR was in trouble, Jos Buttler and Steve Smith played a good game and made sure not to lose another wicket. They didn’t go for unnecessary shots and only hit the loose balls as the run rate was very low. Thus, both of them successfully chased the total in 17.3 overs.
Scorecard:
Chennai Super Kings: 125/5 (R Jadeja 35*, MS Dhoni 28, S Gopal 1/14)
Rajasthan Royals: 126/3 (J Buttler 70*, S Smith 26*, D Chahar 2/18)