Jaipur: New Zealander Mitchell Santner (10 n o) hit a six off the last ball to hand Chennai Super Kings (CSK) a thrilling four-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Thursday.
Needing 18 runs of the final over, Ravindra Jadeja (9 n o) hit a six to bring the equation to 11 runs off five balls. While MS Dhoni (58, 43b, 2×4, 3×6) was clean bowled in the third ball but it was the Kiwi spinner who scored 10 runs in the final three balls to script a memorable victory.
However, CSK didn’t had the best of the starts as they slumped to 24/4 in four overs at one stage chasing 152 runs for victory. However, it was the Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu (57, 47b, 2×4, 3×6) who stitched together 95 runs for the fifth wicket to bring the team back into the game.
Earlier, CSK produced yet another disciplined bowling effort to restrict the hosts to a modest 151/7. Save Jos Buttler (23, 10b) at the top of the order, none of other Royals batsmen looked the part as Dhoni’s immaculate reading of the track once again helped the defending champions.
Left-arm spin duo Jadeja (2/20) and Mitchell Santner (1/25) checked the run-flow as Royals batsmen were always playing a catch-up game. Even, Imran Tahir (0/28), who went for a few more runs compared to the other two spinners, ended with decent enough figures.
Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane (14, 11b) failed once again with seamer Deepak Chahar (2/33) trapping him leg before.
Buttler belted Shardul Thakur (2/44) for a few boundaries before he mistiming one which was easily caught by Ambati Rayudu.
Once Buttler was gone, Royals lost the momentum as wickets fell at regular imtervals. Steve Smith (15, 22b) struggled once again as he slog swept Jadeja towards deep mid-wicket only to find Rayudu. Sanju Samson (six) also top edged a sweep which was caught by substitute fielder Dhruv Shorey.
Rahul Tripathi’s (10) struggles in the middle-order continued while Ben Stokes’ (28, 26b) wasn’t good enough. However, it was Shreyas Gopal (19), who struck a few meaty blows to take the target past 150 despite the home team playing as many as 42 dot balls.
Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 151/7 (Ben Stokes 28, Jos Buttler 23; Ravindra Jadeja 2/20, Deepak Chahar 2/33) lost to Chennai Super Kings 155/6 (MS Dhoni 58, Ambati Rayudu 57) by four wickets.
