Match 17 of the Vivo IPL 2018, Chennai Super Kings host Rajasthan Royals on their new home ground. See how Shane Watson playing against his old team scores a magnificent hundred to make it 2 in consecutive days in IPL.
Build Up To The Match
Both teams have won two matches, Royals who have played an extra match lost their last match against KKR by 7 wickets. Chennai playing in Pune lost their last match against KXIP. Both teams will be looking for a victory here.
Rajasthan Royals Won The Toss
Rajasthan won the toss and put Chennai out to bat. Both teams made a couple of changes. CSK brought in Karn Sharma and Suresh Raina for Harbhajan Singh and Murali Vijay. Whereas Rajasthan Royals have included Henrich Klaasen and Stuart Binny in place of D’Arcy Short and Dhawal Kulkarni.
Shane Watson vs Royals
Chennai got off to a quick start as Rayudu and Shane Watson set up a good foundation bringing the fastest 50 run partnership for the 1st wicket. Shane Watson was given a lifeline early on which the Royals would come to regret as innings proceeded. Coming after an injury, Suresh Raina joined Watson in the middle. The batsmen looked in form and scored freely. In a partnership of 81, Raina went for 46 off 29 balls as he hit 9 boundaries.
Chennai lost a couple of quick wickets but it was Shane Watson’s brilliant knock that took CSK to a total of 204 at the loss of 5 wickets. Playing against the team he was with for 7 years, Watson scored 106 in just 57 balls, hitting 9 fours and 6 sixes with a strike rate of over 185. CSK have one great fan base. Click here to see how 1000 fans traveled all the way from Chennai to watch this match.
Rajasthan’s Bowlers Went All Around The Park
The bowlers started poorly as Watson smashed them all around the park. Laughlin got Rayudu back to the pavilion for 12. An easy chance dropped by Rahul Tripathi of Shane Watson at slip didn’t help Rajasthan’s case. No one stopping Raina and Watson as they bring in the carnage. RR managed to stop Raina from scoring his half-century as Gowtham grabbed a good diving catch. The away team pulled back things a little but it was the dropped chances that came back to haunt the Royals as Watson hit a ton to set a big target for the Royals.
Rajasthan’s Chase
Rajasthan had a big target in front of them and their start didn’t help their cause as they lost 3 wickets in the first 4 overs. The two Englishmen, Buttler and Ben Stokes looked to make some sort of a partnership but Jos Buttler ended up losing his wicket for 22. It was a very tough ask as the run rate just kept on increasing. It was just a matter of time before the Rajasthan batsmen gave in to the asking rate as RR suffered their second loss in a row.
CSK’s Bowling
CSK bowlers started off brilliantly taking apart the top order of Rajasthan as Royals lost 3 wickets in the first 4 overs. With a huge total and early wickets, the bowlers were able to bowl as they liked. The Super Kings bowlers kept a tight hold on the Royals team as none of the batsmen could score freely. All the Chennai bowlers were amongst the wickets. Chennai Super Kings won this one-sided match by 64 runs.
Man Of The Match
It was Shane Watson’s smashing innings that took CSK to their 3rd victory of the season. He scored 106 off 57 balls with 6 sixes and 9 boundaries.
Click here to check out how Gayle storm hit Mohali in the last match of Vivo IPL 2018.
