Chennai: Chepauk ground, MS Dhoni’s captaincy for the 200th time for Chennai Super Kings and the team in trouble. In such a situation, the fans of Chennai Super Kings would have trusted only one player – Captain MS Dhoni himself. Like the happy ending of films, the fans were about to see the same ending, but Rajasthan Royals dashed these wishes and hopes. Sandeep Sharma gave Rajasthan a 3-run win, destroying Dhoni’s hopes of finishing the match with a six.
Chennai needed 40 runs in the last two overs. In the 19th over, Jason Holder was put on the attack and Chennai scored 19 runs in this over. Ravindra Jadeja hit 2 sixes and a four in the over. Then in the 20th over, IPL veteran pacer Sandeep Sharma got the responsibility of stopping 21 runs, but he put 2 wides in the beginning.
Dhoni’s finish was not visible in the last ball
After this Dhoni hit 2 sixes in the next 3 balls. This raised hopes but Sandeep turned the tables on the next three balls. He snatched victory from Chennai with three consecutive excellent yorkers. CSK needed 5 runs off the last ball and Dhoni was on strike. Everyone expected that in his 200th match as the captain of Chennai, Dhoni would finish the match with a six like the old days, but Sandeep dashed everyone’s hopes with the best yorker. For the first time since 2008, Rajasthan defeated Chennai in Chepauk.
Earlier, the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal played the biggest role in defeating Chennai in their own game. In batting, Ashwin had made an important contribution of 30 runs, but he also showed his fire in bowling. Ashwin, who grew up playing at the Chepauk Stadium, wreaked havoc on this pitch. In his 4 overs, Ashwin took two wickets for just 25 runs. He dismissed Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dubey LBW in consecutive overs.
Butler again, Ashwin-Padikkal’s amazing
As expected, Chepauk’s pitch proved to be helpful for the spinners and in such a situation, this match could not be played with full speed from the beginning. Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shimron Hetmyer played good innings for Rajasthan Royals. However, none of them could score big after a good start.
Ravindra Jadeja also had an important contribution in this, who took the wickets of Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson in a single over. Samson could not even open an account.
Padikkal, who came after the early dismissal of Yashasvi Jaiswal, shared a 77-run partnership with Jos Buttler. Butler scored his third half-century this season. He also shared a 47-run partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin played a useful inning by taking advantage of two lives. In the last over, Shimron Hetmyer scored a quick 30 runs to take the team to 175. Apart from Jadeja for Chennai, Tushar Deshpande and Akash Singh also took 2-2 wickets.
