The Chennai Super Kings rose to the top of the IPL table with an eight-run win over the Rajasthan Royals, who lie bottom of the table after their third straight loss, writes SIMON LEWIS.
The Kings racked up 175-5 off their 20 overs, thanks to a late rally from skipper MS Dhoni. He scored a power-packed 75 not out off 46 balls with four fours and four sixes (S/R 163.04).
Dhoni received support from Suresh Raina (36 off 32 balls) and Dwayne Bravo, whose 27 came off 16 balls with three fours and a six (S/R 168.75). Jofra Archer was close to unplayable with the ball, picking up 2-17 off his four overs (econ 4.25).
The Royals found themselves three down for 14 runs at the start of the fourth over before Rahul Tripathi (39 off 24 balls) and Steven Smith (28 off 30 balls) added 61 for the fourth wicket.
Ben Stokes scored 46 off 26 balls (1×4, 3×6) and Archer 24 off 11 balls (1×4, 2×6) to take their side to the brink of their first win of the 2019 campaign. Needing 12 runs off the last over, Bravo throttled the Royals tail, picking up two wickets for just two runs off the bat to restrict the Royals to 167-8 and send the Kings top of the table.
The wickets were shared between Deepak Chahar (2-19), Imran Tahir (2-23), Bravo (2-32) and Shardul Thakur 2-42, with Dhoni picking up the Player of the Match honours.
Photo: Saikat Das/SPORTZPICS for IPL
