Steve Smith and Jos Buttler
On an evening when everything went in favour of MS Dhoni, the man who was playing his 200th IPL game, the gritty partnership of Steve Smith and Jos Buttler left him clueless on a slowish Abu Dhabi track on Monday. After going three down in the fifth over with just 28 runs on board, Smith and Buttler dug deep to stitch a valiant 98-run partnership to chase the lowest target set by a team this season, with 15 balls to spare. With the win, only their fourth in the season after 10 games, Rajasthan take the fifth spot in the points table, pushing Chennai Super Kings once again to the bottom end.
With a target of 126, Dhoni knew that all he needed was to bowl out the Royals, whose batting have looked toothless throughout the tournament. He bowled out Josh Hazlewood and Deepak Chahar within the first nine overs with Ravindra Jadeja adding in an extra one. The pace duo picked three wickets between themselves.
While Ben Stokes looked rather fluent against the moving ball from Chahar, Robin Uthappa, who made an impressive return as an opener in the previous game, struggled immensely forcing his partner to take the role of an aggressor at the start. Stokes pulled three boundaries in his 11-ball 19 before chopping one onto the stumps off Chahar. Uthappa departed two deliveries later, playing a reckless scoop shot iff alength delivery from Hazlewood and Dhoni showed no discomfort in taking that dolly. Shortly later, the captain plucked a one-handed stunner to complete the dismissal of Sanju Samson who provided the softest of touch to a leg-side delivery from Chahar.
Despite the three early blows that asking rate never was never against the Royals who still had two experienced batters in the middle.
CSK persisted with pace attack - Shardul Thakur and Sam Curran - and the Royals milked 28 runs morewith two boundaries and a six. By the time Piyush Chawla was introduced into the attack, 13th over of the game, Buttler, who has been vulnerable against leg-spinners in his T20 career, was well set on 41 off 29 and went past his second fifty of th season with a hat-trick of boundaries exceuted through sweeps in the 15th over. He evenually ended with 70 off 48 while Smith scored 26 off 34.
Rajasthan Royals produced a fine bowling effort to restrict three-time champions Chennai Super Kings to a modest 125 for five.
Opting to bat, CSK never got going and lacked the firepower to put up a decent score after being reduced to 56 for four in 10 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja top-scored for CSK with a 30-ball unbeaten 35 and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, playing in his 200th IPL game, made a run-a-ball 28 while adding 51 runs for the fifth wicket.
Jofra Archer (1/20) was terrific with the new ball but he would be disappointed with his outing on the field.
Besides Archer, the spin duo of Shreyas Gopal (1/14) and Rahul Tewatia (1/18) were economical in the middle overs, while young Kartik Tyagi (1/35) too was impressive.
Dhoni's decision to bat first backfired as RR picked up wickets at regular intervals to make life difficult for CSK.
CSK lost the in-form Faf du Plessis (10) in the third over, caught by Jos Buttler off Archer and then an over later, Shane Watson was sent back by Kartik.
Opening the batting again, Sam Curran made 22 off 25 balls before being dismissed by Gopal.
After that, a lot depended on Ambati Rayudu but he too disappointed, perishing in the next over off Tewatia's bowling as CSK slumped to 56 for four.
Dhoni and Jadeja tried their best to resurrect the innings and then up the ante, but it proved to be too little too late.
Dhoni was run out in search of a double in the 18th over.
Kedar Jadhav continued to struggle with the bat as RR bowlers didn't give the CSK batsmen any leeway.
(with PTI inputs)
