CSK needed magic-wand for win yesterday against Rajasthan Royals; they got two – Morkel and Anirudha, these two kept their nerve to win the match. Dhoni won the toss and he put the Rajasthan Royals in to bat. RR kept losing wickets through senseless strokes and ended at 127/6. The start-stop nature of the match, with the rain interfering on three occasions, added to the falling wickets, kept the big home crowd mostly silent.
Chennai Super Kings edge out Rajasthan Royals in low scoring thriller
A brilliant opening spell from Ben Hilfenhaus proved key factor as Chennai restricted the Rajasthan to 126 for 6. Hilfenhaus scalped two vital wickets of Rajasthan skipper Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson early during his breath-taking opening spell of four overs which yielded just eight runs. He came into this match leaving behind the debacle against MI when he was hit for 14 runs off last 3 balls. Dravid was Hilfenhaus’ first victim as he fell in the second over, top-edging one to Hussey at mid-off.
Hilfenhaus then accounted for danger man Watson cheaply three overs later to derail Rajasthan’s innings.
Watson was brilliantly caught by a diving Ravichandran Ashwin at the third-man boundary as the batsman went for a huge heave over square-leg only to get a leading edge.
Stuart Binny tried to force a comeback with a fierce counter-attack and thrashed Dwayne Bravo for two boundaries and a six to pick up 18 runs off his opening over. But Binny (27) then fell when he pulled Mahesh to Raina at short midwicket, before Johan Botha (12) and Hodge combined for a 32-run fifth-wicket stand. Hodge was top-scorer for Rajasthan with 33 off 28 balls.
Chasing 127-run target, Chennai lost wickets at regular intervals and looked in trouble as they were tottering at 84 for 6 at one stage. With 43 runs needed to win from the final four overs, Albie Morkel and Anirudha Srikkanth played some sensational shots to pull the match from under the noses of Rajasthan Royals to earn Chennai Super Kings a much needed four-wicket win with 11 balls to spare. By virtue of this win, CSK moved up to the fourth position in the standings with 13 points from as many games, while Rajasthan have slipped to the sixth spot with 12 points from 13 games.
Tags: Chennai Super Kings, CSK, Indian Premier League, IPL, Rajasthan Royals, RR
