SAWAI MANSINGH STADIUM: Chennai super kings rattled Rajasthan Royals at their home ground at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. Stokes, who gave 21 runs in the final over must be livid with his efforts.
The stage was set for the clash between CSK and RR. It was Chennai who won the toss and Put Rajasthan to bat. Both the teams make several changes in their squad. CSK brought Mitchell Santner and Shardul Thakur in place of Harbhajan Singh and Scott kuggeelejin. Whereas RR also made 3 changes. They brought Sanju Samson, Jaydev Unadkat and Riyan Parag in place of Prashant Chopra, Krishnappa Gowtham and S.Midhun.
The RR openers started with some positive intent. In the second over, Rahane scored 2 boundaries. But Deepak Chahar, who always provided CSK with an early breakthrough scalped the wicket of Rahane in his 2nd over. He convinced Dhoni to take Review against the Umpire call. They got succeeded and broke the opening stand early. In the next over, shradul also got the key wicket Buttler after conceding Hattrick of boundaries. Rajasthan kept on losing wickets and by the end of 11 overs, they were 79-5. Riyan Parag who was making IPL debut also departed in 15th over. He scored 14 off 16 deliveries. Stokes was steadily playing his knock. But in the 19th over of the match, He got dismissed by Chahar. Shreyas Goal played a small cameo of 19 runs from 7 balls and took Rajasthan to 151-7.
In the second half of the match, CSK started in a horrible Fashion as they lost Watson in the first over of the inning. Csk had turned HARAKIRI mode as they lost 6 wickets in the first 6 overs. Stokes took a stunner catch to remove Kedhar Jadhav. All the hopes of Chennaiyin fans were now on Rayudu and Dhoni. After strategic Time-out, Dhoni started to target the bowlers. By the halfway stage, CSK were 50-4. They both built a partnership of 94 runs for the 4th wicket. And the kept the scoreboard tickling by adding 1’s and 2’s and boundaries in between that. In this partnership, they hit 3 fours and 5 sixes. Both scored fifty in their innings. Jofra Archer bowled really well in the death and took the match to the last over.
With 18 needed in the final over, RR were the favorites. Ben Stokes was given the responsibility to deliver the Final Over of the game. The first ball went for a huge Six which was then followed by the No-ball. In the first 2 deliveries, Stokes already conceded 9 runs but on the next ball, he bowled a perfect Yorker to dismiss Dhoni. The next ball was initially called a no-ball but the square leg umpire decided against it. MS Dhoni was not happy with the decision and he even came in the middle to explain his views to the umpires. The Situation became tense in the middle.
A double off the next delivery and a wide in the penultimate ball meant that CSK needed 3 runs off the final ball to continue their winning run. It was a slower ball around off-stump and Mitchell Santner clabbered it down the ground. The game was over as the ball sailed over the boundary. Stokes will not pleased with his performance as he gave 21 runs in the last over of the match.
CSK continued their winning streak and now moved to Top of the Table with a healthy Net Run Rate of +0.3. For his calm innings, MS Dhoni received the Man of the Match Award. He scored 58 runs off 43 deliveries with include 2 fours and 3 sixes.