In this historic game of the legendary MS Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) went down by 3 runs to Rajasthan Royals (RR). Notably, this was the 200th game of Chennai and MS Dhoni nearly turned the clock backward and won it for Chennai.
Batting first, Rajasthan Royals 175 runs on the board. The in-form Jos Buttler scored a quickfire 52 runs off just 36 balls and spearheaded the batting line-up of the IPL 2008 Champions.
Ravindra Jadeja was superb with the ball and so were Tushar Deshpande and Akash Singh; even though the latter 2 were a tad expensive in terms of their economy. Devdutt Padikkal who returned to the starting XI, played a gutsy and compact knock of 38 runs in 26 balls.
Chennai Super Kings were in the driving seat of the game for the majority of the duration of the match but failed to hold on to it. In this article, we take a look at 3 major talking points in the game between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals:
1. Ravindra Jadeja shines like a diamond in the game
Chennai Super Kings’ Ravindra Jadeja was the cynosure of all eyes in both the departments as he played like a warrior. He dismissed Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson in the same over and put the Royals in a spot of bother.
While batting, he scored an unbeaten knock of 25* runs but his knock went in vain. If Jadeja can continue with this form, he would most certainly be an invaluable asset in the team of Chennai Super Kings.
2. Devon Conway roars back into form
After a string of failures (except 1 innings) in IPL 2023 where he logged scores of 1, 47 and 0, Devon Conway finally looked fluent and struck a top-class 50. His knock of 50 in just 38 balls essentially brought in stability to the CSK team after Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed early on.
3. Ravichandran Ashwin is still miles ahead of any other all-rounder in IPL
Ravichandran Ashwin, who bagged the player of the match award in this game, is most certainly an invaluable asset in the Rajasthan Royals’ team. He firstly came in at number 5 and scored a crucial knock of 30 runs in just 22 balls.
With the ball, he took 2 important wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube and brought the momentum of RR to a screeching halt.