Guwahati, March 30 After Nitish Rana's 81, Wanindu Hasaranga's four-wicket haul helped Rajasthan Royals to beat Chennai Super Kings by six runs to secure their first win of the IPL 2025 season.
It was Rajasthan's first win of the season after facing defeats against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders in their opening two matches.
Chasing 183, Chennai had a troublesome start as Jofra Archer dismissed Rachin Ravindra for a duck as the English pacer bowled a wicket-maiden to start the proceedings.
Rahul Tripathi and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad then navigated the powerplay with a cautious approach and amassed 42 in the powerplay. Their 46-run partnership was ended by Wanindu Hasaranga in the eighth over with the dismissal of Tripathi (23).
In the middle overs, Chennai failed to get a strong partnership in the middle with Rajasthan bowlers tightening their grip with regular wickets of Shivam Dube (18) and Vijay Shankar (9) by Hasaranga. Gaikwad held one end strong and completed his half-century to keep his side in the hunt.
Gaikwad's stay was also cut short by Hasaranga in the 16th over as MS Dhoni arrived at the crease in the crunch situation. Chennai required 45 off the last three overs but with Dhoni and Jadeja at the crease, it looked possible.
However, Maheesh Theekshana bowled exceptionally well in the 18th over to just concede six runs off it. In the next over, Tushar Deshpande was struck for two sixes and a four by the duo to keep them alive in the chase.
Defending 20 runs in the last over, Sandeep Sharma dismissed Dhoni on the first ball to end his cameo knock of 16 runs including a four and a six each. With Jadeja on the other end, Jamie Overturn struck six on the fourth ball to bring the equation 11 from two balls. He got just a double and a single in the last two balls as Sandeep led Rajasthan to their first win of the season.
For Rajasthan, Hasaranga returned with the figures of 4-35 in his four overs while Archer and Sandeep snatched a scalp each.
Earlier, after being put in to bat first, Rajasthan lost opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (4) on the third ball of the first over off pacer Khaleel Ahmed. Nitish came in to bat at No.3 and joined Sanju Samson in the middle. The duo made the most of the powerplay overs and scored boundaries at regular intervals.
Nitish played the role of an aggressor in the partnership and completed his first IPL half-century since 2023 in 21 balls. His blistering knock pushed Rajasthan to 79/1 after six overs.
Spinner Noor Ahmad finally provided the breakthrough as he dismissed Samson for 21 in the eighth over. Stand-in captain Riyan Parag and Nitish kept rotating the strike and added a 24-ball 38 partnership before the latter was sent back to the pavilion by Ravichandran Ashwin courtesy of MS Dhoni's stumping.
Nitish played a knock of 81 balls off 36 balls laced with 10 fours and five sixes. Dhruv Jurel and Wanindu Hasaranga failed to get going in the innings and lost their wickets to Noor Ahmad and Ravindra Jadeja respectively as Chennai bowlers took control of the game.
Riyan, from the other end, added a brief 26-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer to take their total beyond 150. Riyan's 37-run knock was put to an end by Matheesha Pathirana with an in-swinging yorker in the 18th over.
With wickets kept falling from the other end, Hetmyer (19) followed suit as Pathirana bagged his second scalp of the match.
In the last eight overs, Rajasthan only scored 53 runs and lost their last five wickets in a span of just 30 balls.
For Chennai, Khaleel, Pathirana and Noor bagged two scalps apiece to stage a comeback in the match.
Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 176/6 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 63, Ravindra Jadeja 32 not out; Wanindu Hasaranga 4-35) lost to Rajasthan Royals 182/9 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana 81, Riyan Parag 37; Noor Ahmad 2-28, Matheesha Pathirana 2-28, Khaleel Ahmed 2-38) by six runs.
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