|| Indian Correspondent ||

After the two successive losses against Delhi Capitals (DC) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rajasthan Royals returned to the winning zone after beating Chennai Super Kings at Abu Dhabi.

CSK captain MS Dhoni elected to bat first after winning the toss. Josh Hazlewood and Piyush Chawla came in place of Dwayne Bravo and Karn Sharma. Meanwhile, Steve Smith named only one change to the team where they included Ankit Rajpoot in place of Jaydev Unadkat.

RR ensured a tight powerplay with a fiery spell from Jofra Archer inside the powerplay. And their efforts didn’t go in vain as Faf du Plessis could only manage 10 runs after Jos Buttler took a stunner. Another key batsman Shane Watson smashed two back-to-back boundaries off Kartik Tyagi before Tyagi had the last laugh and sent him in for 8.

Sam Curran and Ambati Rayudu played a 27-run partnership before Curran (22 off 25) and Rayudu (13 off 19) both fell within a span of 3 runs. Chennai were reduced to 56/4 after 10 overs before Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja tried to steady the ship.

While Dhoni scored run-a-ball 28, Jadeja’s 30-ball 35 helped them put up 125 for 5 on the board after their allotted 20 overs.

While chasing, Rajasthan had a rather bizarre start. While Ben Stokes carried his momentum with a few big hits, Robin Uthappa failed to get going. However, it was Deepak Chahar who drew the first blood.

Their top-order woes continued as Chahar’s back of a length outside off delivery crushed Stokes’ stumps and he was out for 19 off 11. Soon, Uthappa’s struggling in the middle came to an end in the next over. However, Chahar provided with another breakthrough by removing dangerous Sanju Samson for a duck and they could manage 31 runs for 3 inside the power play.