Rajasthan Royals overcame a mini top-order collapse to beat Chennai Super Kings comfortably in the end in their IPL 2020 match in Abu Dhabi. Chasing a below-par score of 126, RR achieved the target in 17.3 overs, with seven wickets to spare.
Jos Buttler top-scored for RR, with a well-calculated 70* (seven fours and two sixes). He put on an unbeaten 98-run stand with skipper Steve Smith (26*) to take his team over the line, after RR lost openers Robin Uthappa (4), Ben Stokes (19), and Sanju Samson (0) inside the Powerplay yet again.
For CSK, Deepak Chahar was the pick of the bowlers, bowling incisively with a bit of swing to scalp 2/18 to raise the hopes of the Men in Yellow. Josh Hazlewood, too, was economical, taking 1/19 in his four overs.
Earlier, RR produced a fine bowling effort to restrict three-time champions to a modest 125/5.
Opting to bat, CSK never got going and lacked the fire power 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.
—PTI
