RR seal top-two spot with win over Super Kings

The top two teams will get two cracks at the Ahmedabad final, starting with Qualifier 1 where the Royals take on Gujarat Titans on May 24.

After being champions of the inaugural IPL season, Rajasthan Royals have never again competed in a season finale. They have a great chance this year after finishing second on the points table following their five-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings on Friday. The top two teams will get two cracks at the Ahmedabad final, starting with Qualifier 1 where the Royals take on Gujarat Titans on May 24.

Ravichandran Ashwin (PTI)

Chasing 151, if RR had entertained thoughts of doing it briskly, those extinguished when orange-cap holder Jos Buttler fell to the new ball, caught at slips in the second over bowled by the impressive Simarjeet Singh. With the RR batters holding fort for the rest of the powerplay, the match was going to be decided by how they cope with CSK’s spinners. With no dew troubling the fielding side, the CSK spinners made a match of it.

But thanks to Ravichandran Ashwin’s all-round show and a responsible innings from the in-from Yashasvi Jaiswal (59 off 44b, 8x4, 1x6), they came away winners. Ashwin delivered a solid pressure-absorbing innings of 40* (23b) even as he saw wickets tumbling around him. The CSK spinners created consistent pressure. Mitchell Santner’s reflex action catch ended Sanju Samson’s (15) innings, while Moeen Ali cleaned up Devdutt Padikkal (3) as a result of his failed attempt to sweep. Leg-spinner Prashant Solanki’s double strikes—Jaiswal and Shimron Hetmyer—gave RR some real tense moments before Ashwin’s calmness saved the day.

Earlier in the evening, the opening overs at Brabourne served Kiwi pace ace Trent Boult a reminder of how much T20 cricket can sting you as a bowler. With his 75-match experience, Boult would have seen it before but his worst nightmare came true when he was taken for a 26-run over by Moeen. Only a few nights ago at Navi Mumbai, his powerplay overs had sucked the life out of the Lucknow Super Giants run-chase. Here at the Brabourne where the pitches have been truer, Moeen went after him. The England player bats with a great sense of timing and the typical left-hander’s flourish. But one of the four players retained by CSK had underperformed like many others in yellow until this match. On Friday, Ali was on overdrive, completing his fifty in 19 balls in that expensive sixth over bowled by Boult.

CSK had posted 75 in the first six, despite a quiet first two overs in which Ruturaj Gaikwad became Boult’s customary early overs’ victim.

While RR were getting edgy, Ashwin, coming round the wicket, created an opening by sending Conway back leg-before wicket on 16. One brought three and CSK were reduced to 95/4 after Ambati Rayudu – who was coming back following his retracted retirement tweet – fell to Yuzvendra Chahal’s guile. The wicket brought MS Dhoni to the crease and he was given a rousing reception by thousands in yellow.

It was difficult to spot a RR supporter amid a sea of yellow and they kept shutting down even the stadium announcer when he asked for RR support. But the CSK supporters had little to cheer in the second half of their innings as Dhoni was forced to play out 10 dot balls in his 26 (28). Moeen, who had blazed away to 65 off 24 at one stage, lost a lot of his hitting momentum to be dismissed for 93 (57, 13x4, 3x6) in the final over. The Chahal-Ashwin spin combo again stole the show for RR, their combined returns reading 8-0-54-3. Obed McCoy’s slower balls were equally effective in his 4-0-20-2 spell.