At the end of the 16th over, CSK captain MS Dhoni was observed to be getting agitated with pacer Matheesha Pathirana. Despite a rough start with the ball, CSK managed to regain control of the match after the 12-over mark.
Pathirana had tightened the screws, allowing only seven runs in his over before coming to bowl the final ball. Using his slingy action, Pathirana bowled a beaming full-ball that Dhruv Jurel failed to drive despite making room for it.
The ball went back to Dhoni, who threw it back with the intention of getting a run-out at the non-striker’s end. However, Pathirana was not present at the non-striker’s stumps, leading to Dhoni losing his cool and angrily reacting to the Sri Lankan pacer’s poor positioning after his delivery.
Yashasvi Jaiswal led the way in Rajasthan Royals’ dominating powerplay, storming his way to a 26-ball half-century. Jos Buttler played second fiddle to Jaiswal as they scored 64 runs in the first six overs. However, Buttler soon fell, followed by RR captain Sanju Samson. Although Jaiswal’s innings ended on 77 off 43 balls, RR struggled to maintain the same scoring rate for the next 15 overs.
Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel provided RR with a good finish, adding 48 runs off 20 balls for the fifth wicket and taking RR to a score of 202/5. Samson won the toss and chose to bat first, with RR looking to bounce back from consecutive defeats.
However, they face a rampaging Chennai Super Kings team led by MS Dhoni in their next match. CSK has notched up three easy wins, with their top-order comprising Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, and Shivam Dube firing together most of the time.
The Royals can take some comfort from their first meeting of the season against CSK, where they emerged victorious, although it was a close match as CSK almost pulled off a win in front of their home crowd, with Dhoni turning back the clock with his batting before ultimately losing by three runs.
