Rajasthan Royals picks up easy 7 wickets win over Chennai Super Kings in the 37th game of 2020 IPL. Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 70 runs hands 7th loss to Dhoni and Chennai Super Kings. With tonight’s win Rajasthan moved up to 5th in the points table.
MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Chennai batsman struggled to get going on a tough batting pitch, they managed to score just 125/5 in 20 overs. Rajasthan chased the target 126 in 17.3 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja led scoring for Chennai with unbeaten 35 runs in 30 balls. MS Dhoni (28 runs ) and Sam Curran (22 runs in 25 balls) off to good start but failed to convert it to a good score. At the end of 10th over Chennai were 4/56, before Dhoni & Jadeja added 51 runs for 5th wicket.
Rajasthan’s young leg spinner duo of Gopal & Tewatia bowled really well to restrict Chennai middle order from scoring big runs. Gopal finished game with 4-0-14-1 stat line, while Tewatia completes his 4 over spell by allowing 18 runs and claiming 1 wicket.
Ben Stokes quick start didn’t last long for Royals, the England all-rounder dismissed by Chahar for 19 runs. Samson (0) & Uthappa (4) joined Stokes to the pavilion sooner than later. Royals were 3/28 at 4.3 overs before experienced duo Smith (26 not out in 34 balls) and Jos Buttler (70 not out of 48 balls) took care of the target to claim 4th win in 10 matches.
Buttler, Man of the Match :
“We let a couple of games slip so it’s nice to win tonight. I tried to come out with a bit of intensity with my batting, something I felt I didn’t have last match. I felt more comfortable at the crease. It was a nice feeling. In T20 cricket you can kick yourself for bad form because you never play too many balls, but you have to trust yourself. [No. 5 position] If we win it’s good. Nah, I’m happy to bat wherever the team needs me.”
Smith, Captain of Rajasthan Royals:
“The wicket was stoppy, wasn’t easy for batting. Strange game but nice to be on the winning side. I thought we bowled pretty well in the powerplay and the spinners did a goood job in the middle with their leggies and googlies and squeezing. Shreyas last two years has been sensational for us and Tewatia this year whether batting, bowling or fielding, has done the job. Buttler’s innings took the pressure off me at the other end. It was a really good innings on a wicket that wasn’t the easiest. [The LBW review] no I didn’t know I’d edged it! Jos said he heard it and some guys off the field too.”
MS Dhoni ,Captain of Chennai Super Kings:
“There was a bit for the fast bowlers and the reason I brought Jadeja was to see how much it was stopping and it didn’t as much as the first innings. So I went with the fast bowlers. I don’t think the spinners got as much bite. It’s not always supposed to go your way. We have to see if the process was wrong. Result is a by-product of the process, but the fact still remains that if you’re focused on the process then the undue pressure of result doesn’t enter the dressing room. We’re trying to address that. You don’t want to do too much chop and change because after 3-4-5 games you won’t be sure of anything. Insecurity is something you don’t want to prevail in the dressing room. It’s fair enough [the criticism for not playing youngsters], this season we weren’t there. Maybe we didn’t see as much spark from some of our youngsters. Maybe going forward we bring them in and they play without pressure.”
