Magazine : 
CSK vs RR IPL 2023: Rajasthan Royals survive late MS Dhoni blitz
MS Dhoni has done it a million times over the last 15 years. He brought it down again to five off one ball with a flurry of sixes against Rajasthan Royals. But medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma, who came into the Rajasthan Royals team as a late substitute, landed the golden yorker that didn’t give Dhoni the hitting arc.
A three-run win for Royals at CSK’s den would give the team a huge boost as they start to believe that they can do it anywhere. While Sandeep kept his cool in the last over defending 21, it was the experienced spin duo of R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal which played a huge role. The two, in their eight overs, gave only 52 while scalping four wickets to make things difficult for the hosts.
Ashwin has played all his life at Chepauk and knows what’s the right pace to bowl and right length to hit, impact sub Adam Zampa, the third spinner in the Royals team, had a matchwinning performance here for Australia about three weeks ago in an ODI.
Chahal, on the other hand, has all the experience that is needed to deal with pressure situation on a pitch that has something in it for him. What made it challenging for the spinners was the fact that the dew was coming into play making it difficult for them to hold the ball. Ashwin, though, wasn’t going to be flustered by that.
While he had the in-form Ajinkya Rahane leg-before with a faster one, his dismissal of Shivam Dubey was a beauty. He set him up with the one that spun away from the left-hander and brought one in to catch him leg-before.
Chahal and Zampa, two leggies, bowled the right speed and had the wickets of Devon Conway, Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu that took the wind out of Chennai’s sails.
While batting too, Royals showed a lot of intelligence to push the score to 175/8. Jos Buttler (52 off 36 balls), Devdutt Padikkal (38 off 26), R Ashwin (30 off 22 balls) and Shimron Hetmyer (30 off 18) all chipped in to ensure that the CSK spinners don’t bundle them out for a below 150 score.
Padikkal, coming in at No. 3, played with a degree of maturity. Instead of going too hard at the ball where it was stopping a bit, he looked to manoeuvre the gaps and keep the scoreboard ticking.
Buttler at the other end was starved of deliveries to face in the first four overs, but there was no desperation. He waited for the odd loose ball by Moeen and hit two sixes with his trademark pulls that took Royals to 86-1 in the first eight overs.
It was at this point that Ravindra Jadeja (2-21) took over. Bowling his second over, Jadeja induced a false shot off Padikkal to dismiss him. He looked to bowl faster through the air and got that dangerous turn which batsmen across the world are scared of. Sanju Samson (0) couldn’t deal with it and was bowled and Jadeja threatened to eat into the Royals middle-order.
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