IPL 4 match 52: Chennai Super Kings Annihilate Rajasthan Royals in Style

The Chennai Super Kings followed up on their win over the Rajasthan Royals with another away clash that inspired the flow of runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in the IPL 4 clash between past IPL winners.

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The Chennai Super Kings, batting first, made a strong statement of their talent as the defending champions as they posted a rather enormous score of 196 at the end of their fifty overs. Leading the way was the first wicket partnership between Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay who has found the middle of his bat once more.

Hussey was sublime in his thirty-ball forty-six while Vijay was yet again resounding in his shot making. While the duo stayed at the crease, the Rajasthan Royals, Shane Warne, was experiencing a nightmare. That is because between the two of them, seventy-seven runs were raised and all within the first ten overs.

Eventually the breakthrough was provided by Johan Botha in the dismissal of Hussey but by then, the Chennai Super Kings already had a platform to work from. They could have made the Rajasthan Royals pay more had Murali Vijay stayed beyond the fifteen overs. However, casual running led to his ouster, having made a half century off only forty balls that included one more six than the number of boundaries hit which was two.

However, Suresh Raina had taken on the baton in the partnership while the Chennai Super Kings captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, decided it was time to throw caution to the winds. In a rare who where Dhoni has been free flowing in recent times, he smashed forty-one runs from only nineteen balls, forcing the Jaipur crowd to acknowledge his magnificence as he hit three sixes and three fours. Raina may have had to take backseat to his captain, but his innings was no less majestic as he brought up forty-three runs in twenty-seven balls as Chennai posted a huge target for the Rajasthan Royals to chase.

Rajasthan did not entirely throw in the towel. Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson threatened to unleash. But the Chennai Super KIngs kept a lid on things with Doug Bollinger and Ravichandran Ashwin striking to leave Rajasthan Royals at two down for forty-eight after six overs.

Ajinkya Rahane was promoted up to no.3 and he vindicated the faith with a fighting half century from thirty-seven balls. Unfortunately for Rahane, he was virtually the lone man standing with Chennai picking wickets at regular intervals to leave the hosts tottering at four down for seventy.

Resistance was nipped in the bud by the combination of Chennai Super Kings' lead bowlers in Bollinger who picked three wickets, Ashwin who scalped two and even Suresh Raina in the latter stages as Chennai Super Kings closed out the Rajasthan Royals at 133, Shane Warne coming in to bat at no.11 and becoming the final wicket to fall, as Chennai won by sixty-three runs.