Ravichandran Ashwin again proved his usefulness with the bat when his team needed it most as Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings by five wickets to finish the IPL competition stage in Top-2 on Friday. Ashwin went unbeaten with 40 from 23 balls when RR completed the chase of 151 with two balls to go, taking second place to set up a blockbuster clash with Gujarat Titans in the first playoff next Tuesday. Moeen Ali scored the highest score for CSK with a 57-ball 93 before RR made a remarkable comeback to limit the Yellow Brigade to 150 for six in the allotted 20 overs.
Young Yashasvi Jaiswal (59 from 44 balls) got RR off to a quick start with back-to-back boundaries from Mukesh Choudhary in the first over of the innings.
By the time the first left of their innings ended, RR qualified for the playoffs on a net run rate basis, forcing Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals to battle for fourth.
Simarjeet Singh struck early for CSK, sending back the dangerous Jos Buttler (2), who slid an exit delivery to Moeen’s waiting hands on slip.
Jaiswal skipped two more straight boundaries in the next and to give RR innings stability, the 20-year-old opener added 51 runs for the second wicket with captain Sanju Samson (15).
However, Samson again failed to turn his start into a substantial contribution, as left arm spinner Mitchell Santner caught and pitched the batter. Devdutt Padikkal (3) didn’t last long and was bowled by Moeen to leave RR at 76 for three in the 12th left, and with some work to do.
After raising his half-century in 39 balls, and after a long six, the well-placed Jaiswal stepped out to Prashant Solanki as he tried to clear the fence.
Back from Guyana after celebrating the birth of his child, Shimron Hetmyer (6) arrived at the crease with high hopes to finish it off for RR but couldn’t do much when he fell for Solanki.
However, Ravichandran Ashwin kept RR in the hunt with his sensible strike to one side.
Earlier, Moeen blazed away in the power play, but then slowed down significantly as Chennai Super Kings struggled for points in the back 10.
Leading first after his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss, Moeen made his way to a 19-ball 50 and was 59 out of 24 at the end of the first six power playovers, with CSK driving away to 75 for the loss of one wicket.
In total, Moeen made 93 of 57 balls with 13 fours and three sixes.
However, after being on the receiving end of Moeen’s brutal attack, in which the English all-rounder made a bowler of Trent Boult’s caliber look like an uncapped player by knocking him down 26 runs in an over, the RR recovered. bowling unit is fine.
There was a phase in the innings where CSK failed to find a 45-ball boundary, before Dhoni (26) roared to pull Yuzvendra Chahal (2/26) over a deep square leg.
As for Mooen, he was held for a long time by the RR bowlers. After skipping Chahal’s flying delivery by covering for four in the fourth ball of the seventh, Moeen found his next four three balls in the 17th left, bowler Obed McCoy (2/20), at Wankhede Stadium.
Dhoni smoked Prasidh Krishna for a midwicket of six over deep into the start of the next over, but the Seamer came back strong in the remaining five balls.
For starters, CSK 3 was ahead of one after two overs, but Devon Conway and Moeen then broke loose, scoring 12 and 18 runs in the next two overs and starting the Yellow Brigade innings.
Mooen got the big shots going with great ease, even as Conway watched from the other side. Mooen reached his half-century with an uppercut over the third man line at Boult.
That past – the last before the power play ended – saw Moeen go hard at Boult and hit the seasoned New Zealand pacer for a six and five limits.
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Before that, Prasidh gave up 18 runs in an over that forced Sanju Samson to attack veteran Ravichandran Ashwin (1/28), but he too was hit for 16 points by Moeen.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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