Chennai Super Kings recorded a third successive win in the 12th edition of the IPL by defeating the Rajasthan Royals by 8-runs in Sunday’s evening game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. This was also the third consecutive defeat for Rajasthan Royals.
Rajasthan Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and opted to field against Chennai Super Kings.
Chasing a total of 176, Rajasthan had a substandard beginning as they gave away three wickets swiftly on just 14 runs.
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Steve Smith and Rahul Tripathi then provided succour to Rajasthan by forming a 61-run partnership giving the host a bit of relief after a puny start. Both the players later became victims of Imran Tahir.
Bravo bowled a stunning spell restricting the hosts to 167 runs helping his side win the match by 8 runs.
Chennai’s skipper MS Dhoni formed a decent partnership with Raina and both added 61 runs to the scoreboard before Jaydev Unadkat dismissed Raina.
Dhoni remained constant on the on-end and then formed a partnership with Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja of 56 and 31 runs respectively. Dhoni smashed three sixes off last three deliveries of the innings and scored 75 runs off just 46 balls helping his team post a target of 176 for the visitors.
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Rajasthan will now host Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 2 while Chennai will be hosted by Mumbai Indians on April 3.
Final scores:
Chennai Super Kings: 175/5 (MS Dhoni: 75, Suresh Raina: 36, Jofra Archer: 2-17)
Rajasthan Royals: 167/8 (Ben Stokes: 46, Rahul Tripathi: 39, Deepak Chahar: 2-19)