Chennai Super Kings continued their dominance at home and eased to a fourth successive win in conditions where power play took a backseat to opportunistic strokemaking, and stamina and steady consolidation was in greater supply than short outbursts of runs. The sweltering Chennai heat and a slow pitch made for a tiring ordeal for batsmen, and it seemed at one stage that Rajasthan Royals, at the back of Rahul Dravid’s fluent half-century, would have the better of the contest. But an inspired recovery from Chennai’s faltering bowlers and a controlled approach to the chase from Suresh Raina and Michael Hussey lay at the heart of a comfortable win – their fifth at the Chidambaram Stadium this season – in the end for the hosts.
The Rajasthan openers, Dravid and Watson, had displayed excellent determination to occupy the crease and set a strong foundation to their team’s innings. The pair ran well between wickets, rotated the strike, picked the gaps to scramble back for the twos, before Dravid took charge against the spinners. R Ashwin was pulled twice in an over to the midwicket fence, reverse-swept and punched Suraj Randiv for three fours in an over to different parts of the ground and played his best shot – an inside-out drive over extra cover – off Shadab Jakati to set up a stand of 86 in the first ten overs with Watson.
The trigger for the fightback was a brilliant return catch from Jakati against Watson, as he took a chance and intercepted a ferocious thwack back towards him in the 11th over. Despite an encouraging run rate, and with plenty of ammunition left in the batting for a surge at the death, the desire for clearing the ropes overrode any thought of building the innings further for a few more overs. Ashok Menaria holed out needlessly against Ashwin, and Johan Botha, who had picked a cheeky boundary, succumbed when he tried to use force against Jakati. Dravid was swimming in sweat in the Chennai heat and fell to a tiring shot, and not long after, the seamers returned to contain the flow further. A couple of fours from Ross Taylor was offset by a double-strike from Albie Morkel in the penultimate over, and Rajasthan only managed 61 in the last ten, losing six wickets.
Rahul Dravid scores through the off-side
The wicket of M Vijay was an early boost for Rajasthan but some sloppy fielding, a difficult yet catchable attempt missed and the maturity of Raina and Hussey put paid to any hopes of restricting Chennai. Stuart Binny conceded eight runs in the field, through a misfield and an overthrow, and was taken for consecutive boundaries later in the innings on a forgettable day for him. Raina was let off by Watson diving full stretch in the deep, but barring that the pair batted assuredly, never allowing the required rate to reach intimidating proportions.
Like the Chennai bowlers had done in the first ten overs, Rajasthan’s attack erred in line and length, giving the batsmen timely opportunities to pierce the field. Siddharth Trivedi bowled too often down the leg side, the more accurate Watson and Botha were worked around while left-arm spinner Nayan Doshi, with both batsmen well settled, was carted for two sixes in the 11th over – the same phase in the Rajasthan innings had marked a decisive turn of events. As the shoulders drooped, Binny doled freebies outside off which Hussey cut for successive fours before delivering the same treatment to Menria on the leg side. Raina’s dismissal was against the run of play, but his knock, along with Hussey’s, had made a relatively one-sided contest out of a potential cracker.
