Rajasthan Royals continued on their winning spree, this time, crushing Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets at Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The Rajasthan Royals side, chasing down the 157 set for them by the Chennai Super Kings, opened their innings with Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson, who looked to be in quite a rush to hand the Chennai side a loss. It began raining fours and sixes and in the blink of an eye, the score was 42/0 in 5 overs.
The duo continued their aggressive cricket, with 88/0 on the scoreboard in 10 overs, 69 required for a win from 60 deliveries. Watson notched up his 50 in the 12th over, while Rahane followed suit in the next one, taking the score to 138/0 in 15, now requiring 19 from 30 balls. Watson’s innings came to an end when Jadeja dismissed him for 73. Smith came in, but departed for 6, taken by Bravo. Nair was was the new man and together with Rahane (76), the win came along with more than an over to spare.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat first. Opening the innings for the Chennai side were McCullum and Smith, but the former was sent back by Tambe for 12 in the 3rd over, bringing in Suresh Raina. After a few attacking shots by the Chennai outfit, Raina was packed off by Morris for 4 in the 6th over, the new man being Faf du Plessis.
The Royals bowlers gave no chance to the Chennai team to settle down or gain momentum, as the scalped the next wicket in the form of Plessis, who was taken by Ankit Sharma for 1. Smith departed in the 10th over, dismissed by Faulkner for 40, reducing the score to 68/4 in 10 overs.
This brought together Dhoni and Bravo, who stitched a patient partnership, dispatching the bad balls across the boundary, but avoiding unnecessary risks altogether. Going full on the troubleshooting mode, Dhoni (31) and Bravo (62) took the score to a respectable 156/4.