Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings in a high-voltage match of IPL 2023 on Wednesday. In the match played at CSK's home ground, MA Chidambaram stadium, RR beat the MS Dhoni-led team by 3 runs. The match was an absolute nail-biter as it went down the wire.
Coming to bat first after losing the toss, Sanju Samson-led team registered 175/8 in 20 overs. In response, Team CSK managed to chase 172 runs at a loss of 6 wickets.
Rajasthan lost an early wicket as opener Yashasvi Jaiswal 10 (8) departed in the 2nd over. However, Jos Buttler 52 (36) and Devdutt Padikkal 38 (26) stabilized RR's innings. Moreover, Buttler became the 3rd fastest after Chris Gayle and KL Rahul to smash 3000 IPL runs. His innings included 1 boundary and 3 sixes. On the other hand, RR skipper Sanju Samson got dismissed on duck for the 2nd consecutive time, this season. While Ravichandran Ashwin and Shimron Hwtmyer contributed 30 runs each, Dhruv Jurel scored 4 runs, Jason Holder failed to score any runs and Adam Zampa scored 1 run.
While Akash Singh, who made his debut for CSK, scalped 2 wickets, Moeen Ali finished his spell with 1 wicket. Ravindra Jadeja proved to be the most economical among CSK bowlers. he finished by taking 2 wickets at an economy of 5.20. On the other hand, Tushar Deshpande also took 2 wickets for the team.
Coming to chase, CSK also lost an early wicket as Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed by Sandeep Sharma in the third over. Devon Conway 50 (38) and Ajinkya Rahane 31 (19) then took the charge. However, the CSK batting line-up kept struggling after Rahane's wicket in the 10th over. Shivam Dube 8 (9), Moeen Ali 7 (10), and Ambati Rayadu 1 (2) failed to contribute much on the scoreboard. Ravindra Jadeja 25 (15) and MS Dhoni 32 (17) guided the team closer to the win but fell 3 runs short.
Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal ended with 2 wickets each for RR, with Chahal getting the purple cap. Sandeep and Zampa took 1 wicket each.
