Chennai Super Kings Vs Rajasthan Royals - Match 37 - De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberly

Chennai Super Kings's dream run in the latter part of the IPL continued with yet another victory over the champs Rajasthan Royals. Rajasthan Royals didn't get the start they want as they lost N Ojha in the third ball of the Royal's innings, but Asnodkar and Smith added 53 runs before Murali trapped Asnodkar plum in front of the wickets for a well made 26. Smith(30 of 33 balls) was foxed by a Murali delivery and a smart piece of glovework from Dhoni sent Smith back to the pavillion. The spinners along with Balaji kept a tight leash on the Rajasthan scoring rate. The batsmen tried to increase the run rate only to find themself playing a poor shot and getting out. Ravindra Jadeja(27 of 19 balls) looked dangerous after the strategic break but was removed by Balaji, thanks to a stunner of a catch from Raina. Shane Warne's final assault of 21 from 11 balls helped Rajasthan reach a score of 140, a very defendable target on a pitch which kept low and made stroke play difficult.

Chennai's chase had some initial hiccups with Murali Vijay departing after scoring just 10 runs and Raina depearting after making 13 runs. With the scoreboard reading 37/2, Badrinath joined Hayden at the crease and this partnership took chennai through. Hayden made a solid 48 from 44 balls and Badri compiled a beautiful half century, an effort which earned him the Man of the Match award. Warne got the consolation wicket of Hayden when the Chennai score read 126, but it was too little too late as Badri took Chennai home with 10 balls to spare.

Toss

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to bat first

Brief Scores

Rajasthan Royals - 140/7 in 20 overs(G Smith - 30, R Jadeja - 27, M Muralitharan - 2/22, S Jakati - 2/35)

Chennai Super Kings - 141/3 in 18.2 overs(S Badrinath - 59*, M Hayden - 48, S Trivedi - 1/23, A Singh - 1/25)

Result

Chennai Super Kings won the match by 7 wickets

Chennai Super Kings Vs Rajasthan Royals - Match 22 - SuperSport Park,
Centurion - Bulletin

Suresh Raina played one of the best innings of this years IPL to give Chennai their second win of the season. His 98 of just 55 balls propelled Chennai to a a formidable 164-5. In reply Rajasthan never looked in the hunt loosing opener their Graham Smith for just 2.

Raina was also a star in the field getting the wicket of Quiney(28) and taking two catches. Rajasthan only managed 126-9 in their 20 overs with Balaji picking up 4 wickets. Yusuf Pathan was once again the bright light for scoring 20 and taking 2 wickets in Rajasthan's 38 run loss.

This win has brought Chennai's campaign back on track, having lost three matches and one washed out. Rajasthan on the other hand have a lot to ponder about. Their batting has not been like we know from last year, their bowling, far from impressive.

Earlier in the day Chennai made a disastrous start with Pathan accounting for Hayden and Patel for 1 and 3 respectively. But this did not deter Raina who reached his half century of just 27 balls. He found valuable support from Badrinath (29) and Dhoni (22) along the way. Raina's innings included 5 sixes and 10 fours and ended when he was caught of the bowling of Munaf Patel.

If this was not enough drama, Raina had just celebrated his first IPL hundred and also became the first Indian to do so. But those celebrations were short lived as it was later found out that he had actually scored only 98. This was a disastrous mistake by the scorers who gave Raina two extra runs. Had Raina know this would he have played a different shot to the one he got out? Maybe, but as they say cricket is a team game and personal feats come second to the teams cause.

Toss
Rajasthan Royals and elected to field first

Teams
Rajasthan Royals
R Quiney,G Smith, S Asnodkar, R Jadeja, Y Pathan, D Mascarenhas, S Warne, M Rawat,
M Patel, S Trivedi, K Khan.

Chennai Superkings
M Hayden, P Patel, S Raina, S Badrinath, MS Dhoni, M Morkel, J Oram, L Balaji,
M Muralitharan, S Tyagi, S Jakati.

Brief Scores
Chennai Super Kings 164-5 in 20 overs (S Raina - 98, S Badrinath - 29, Y Pathan - 2/17)
Rajasthan Royals 126-9 in 20 overs (R Jadeja 37, R Quiney 28, L Balaji - 4/21, A Morkel - 2/21)

Result
Chennai Superkings won by 38 runs

THIS POST WAS POSTED BY RUDY