Rajasthan Royals (RR) have climbed to the top of the points table with a solid win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was a complete performance from the Royals in their 200th IPL match at their home ground as they won by 32 runs. While it was Yashasvi Jaiswal with the bat early on the innings, the trio of spin bowlers and a brilliant death bowling from Jason Holder and Sandeep Sharma led the way for the Men in Pink to their fifth win of the season. CSK, on the other hand, were left ruing some poor bowling in the powerplay where they conceded 74 runs.
Earlier, Jaiswal played a magical knock after Samson opted to bat first. Courtesy of his brilliant hitting right from the word go, RR managed to post 74 runs in the first six overs. However, things slowed down a bit in the middle overs with CSK spinners taking control of the innings. Jaiswal, however, had already done the damage scoring 77 runs off 43 balls. CSK pulled things back to a lot of extent but they were unlucky in the death overs.
Matheesha Pathirana was exceptional at the death nailing his yorkers but he conceded boundaries through edges most of the times. Perhaps, the last two overs of the innings cost CSK 36 runs as the Royals became the first team to go past the 200-run mark at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in IPL history.
With no dew, the chase was always going to be tough for the Men in Yellow. The pitch was slowing down and Devon Conway couldn't put bat to ball. He got out early while Ruturaj Gaikwad perished after scoring a vital 47 off 29 balls. But a slow start meant that CSK were always playing catch up in the chase. Shivam Dube kept them in the hunt with some terrific hitting but the trio of spinners of the Royals, Ashwin, Chahal and Zampa, kept the batters in check all the time.
Inspite of all this, CSK threatened to get close at one stage but Jason Holder and Sandeep Sharma bowled superbly at the death to keep Dube and Jadeja at bay. Eventually, CSK could only reach 170 runs in their 20 overs losing the game by 32 runs.
