Jaipur: Chennai Super Kings produced yet another disciplined effort to beat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Thursday night.
After restricting their rivals to a modest 151 for 7, the defending champions got over the line off the last ball when No.8 Mitchell Santner hit acclaimed allrounder Ben Stokes for a six.
Earlier, skipper M. S. Dhoni (58 in 43 balls) and Ambati Rayudu (57 off 47 balls) got the innings back on track with a 95-run stand for the fifth wicket after the yellows had slipped to 24 for 4.
The Rajasthan batsmen did not come off well. Save Jos Buttler (23 off 10 balls) at the top of the order, none of them looked the part as Dhoni’s reading of the track once again helped CSK.
Left-arm spin duo Ravindra Jadeja (2/20 in 4 overs) and Mitchell Santner (1/25 in 4 overs) checked the run-flow as Royals batsmen were always playing a catch-up game.
Even Imran Tahir (0/28 in 4 overs), who went for a few more runs compared to the other two spinners, ended with decent enough figures.
Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane (14 off 11) failed once again with seamer Deepak Chahar (2/33 in 4 overs) trapping him leg before.
Buttler belted Shardul Thakur (2/44 in 4 overs) for a few boundaries before he mistiming one which was easily caught by Ambati Rayudu.
Once Buttler was gone, Royals lost the momentum as wickets fell at regular imtervals. Steve Smith (15,22 balls) struggled once again as he slog swept Ravindra Jadeja towards deep mid-wicket only to find Rayudu. Samson also top edged a sweep which was caught by substitute fielder Dhruv Shorey.
