At last, Rajasthan Royals have found a
resounding win in this IPL season. It took the experienced shoulders of Buttler
& Smith to put in a counter-attack and take the Royals out of some early
trouble in the chase. The victory has catapulted RR to number 5 in the points
table with 8 points next to their name. A lot of credit has to go to the
bowlers who put their hands up and kept the Chennai batsmen quiet throughout
the first inning to restrict them to 125. The Royals will look to make the most
of the momentum from this win for the remaining four games.
MS Dhoni, who was playing his 200th
IPL game, won the toss and elected to bat on what seemed like a dry surface in
Abu Dhabi. Smith mentioned that Rajasthan Royals had made just the sole change,
bringing in Ankit Rajpoot for Jaydev Unadkat.
Archer troubled both Sam Curran & Faf
du Plessis with raw pace early on in the Powerplay. He managed to dismiss Faf
with a short and wide ball that he looked to play a huge cut shot off. The ball
went to Buttler at extra cover and he made no mistake taking the catch and
tumbling like a wicket-keeper. Watson came in and played a couple of delightful
strokes off Tyagi, but the young bowler had his revenge soon. Watson flicked a
full delivery straight into the hands of Tewatia at mid-wicket. The ball went
low down to him, but he got his hands under it neatly.
A few hits by Curran & Rayudu got CSK’s
score beyond 40 in the Powerplay, but losing two wickets had put them on the
back foot. Bowling in tandem after the first 6, Gopal & Tewatia put the
brakes on the scoring rate. Gopal foxed Curran with a flighted googly that was
lofted into Buttler’s hands at long off. Tewatia got rid of the dangerous
Rayudu in the 10th over, when his attempted sweep looped up off a
top-edge for Samson to gather safely.
Dhoni & Jadeja were brought together,
earlier than CSK would have liked or expected. The spinners continued to keep
it tight and in all, picked up 23 dot balls – nearly 4 overs with no score.
Jadeja broke free against Tyagi in the 14th over with three
boundaries, one of which was streaky. CSK managed to crawl past 100 at the end
of the 17th over. The experienced duo had no choice but to go after
the bowlers in the last 3.
A slight misjudgement in running cost Dhoni
his wicket in the 18th over. He ambled through the first run, and an
Archer’s fumble got him thinking to run the second. Archer redeemed himself by
picking the ball quickly and firing the ball straight into Samson’s gloves next
to the stumps. Dhoni was found inches short and it was a huge wicket for
Rajasthan Royals.
Jadeja picked up a couple of boundaries off
Jofra’s final over. The Englishman finished with figures of 1/20 that included
11 dots. Stokes finished the innings well and CSK were kept to just 125/5 – the
lowest first innings total in this season. 51 balls in CSK’s innings were dots;
that is nearly half the innings. The Royals bowled to a plan, putting together
what was easily their best bowling performance in the season so far.
The Royals opening pair, Stokes & Uthappa
looked to get off to a quick start, despite chasing a paltry target. Stokes
looked in the groove, as he moved around at the crease to unsettle Chahar &
Hazlewood. He picked up three boundaries before chopping one off Chahar. He was
utterly disappointed with the wicket and walked back dejected.
Uthappa perished trying to play a cheeky
scoop over the keeper. He went after Hazlewood who followed the shuffling
Uthappa. The ball hit close to the handle of the bat and went straight to
Dhoni. The Royals top order went back to being in trouble at 28/2 in the fourth
over.
More trouble followed for the Royals as Samson
tickled one off his hips to Dhoni’s left. The veteran bent down to his left, as
if in slow motion, stuck his glove out and the ball found itself sitting in the
webbing between his thumb and index finger. The two keepers had got each other
out, you could say.
Smith survived a close call off Hazlewood.
He was struck in front, and it looked plumb. The umpire didn’t give it out and
Dhoni went for the review. The snickometre showed an inside edge. Smith hadn’t
seemed to have felt it either, as he had walked past the umpire. It was a huge
reprieve for the Royals who ended the Powerplay on 31/3.
Dhoni decided to bowl his two new-ball bowlers,
Chahar and Hazlewood right after the Powerplay, in an attempt to get rid of
either Smith or Buttler, or both. Buttler didn’t keep quiet for long, as he
darted one straight down the ground, over Hazlewood’s head. By the 10th
over, the Royals were going almost at a run-a-ball – 59/3.
Smith & Buttler milked the CSK pacers
for a while, running hard between the wickets, A gifted player that he is, Jos
cut loose in the 12th over, belting Thakur for a four and a six off
Shardul Thakur. The two shots took the partnership to 50 runs. The 13-run over
took RR’s run-rate to 6.5 and the required run-rate was brought under 6.
Smith broke loose soon picking his spots to
perfection. He shuffled across & ramped the ball to the fine leg fence. In
an attempt to improve our net run-rate, Buttler attacked Chawla in the 15th
over, picking up three back-to-back boundaries. He got to his second
half-century of the season when he hit the first one.
Rajasthan Royals needed just 18 off the
final 30 balls. Smith went after Chawla as well in the 17th by
smashing one to the mid-wicket boundary and bringing up his 1000th
run for Rajasthan Royals. Buttler seemed like he wanted to finish the game in
the 17th over itself. He lofted Chawla for a six just beyond the
long-on fielder’s reach. Buttler & Smith finished it in singles, as we won
with 15 balls to spare.
The Royals middle-order played with
responsibility after the early hiccups in the chase. It took two senior pros in
Buttler & Smith to watch the on-song Chahar & Hazlewood off before
sticking into the other CSK bowlers. The double over CSK has lifted the Royals
to number 5 on the points table. These were two very crucial points that keep
our dreams alive in this season. Now, we have a few more games to win and this
momentum will help us stride in that direction.
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