Chennai beat Rajasthan to boost play-off hopes as Bengaluru stay in contention
CHENNAI: Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s unbeaten 42 and three wickets by Simarjeet Singh helped holders Chennai Super Kings move closer to an IPL play-off spot with a win over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.
Five-time champions Chennai restricted Rajasthan to 141-5, a total they overhauled with five wickets and 10 balls to spare in their last home game at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Chennai moved to 14 points and third place with seven wins in 13 matches.
Rajasthan remain second in the 10-team table led by Kolkata Knight Riders, who are the only team to have already qualified for the play-offs.
The top four teams will make the play-offs with the final on May 26 in Chennai.
“Very normal to keep thinking about the qualification at this stage. The conversations we are having is to control what we can do,” Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson said.
“At the team brief, I will probably ask them to continue the process and hoping to get on the better side next game.”
Gaikwad anchored Chennai’s tricky chase as they lost wickets at regular intervals including when Ravindra Jadeja was called out for “obstructing the field”.
Jadeja was sent back by Gaikwad while attempting a second run and he changed direction on the pitch when the throw from wicketkeeper Samson hit his hand and the third umpire ruled him out after an appeal from the opposition.
Gaikwad kept his cool and put on an unbeaten 24-run stand with impact substitute Sameer Rizvi, who hit the winning boundary.
Gaikwad is second in the season batting chart behind Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli (634) with 583 runs including one century and four* half-tons. gai kw ad’ s fellow open err ac hinr av indra, who hit 27, and another New Zealand batsman Daryl Mitchell, who made 22, also contributed.
Earlier disciplined bowling kept Rajasthan down to a below par total on a slow pitch as Simarjeet returned figures of 3-26 and fellow medium-pace bowler Tushar Deshpande took two wickets.
Riyan Parag top-scored for Rajasthan with an unbeaten 47.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made 24, and Jos Buttler, who made 21, started cautiously but the innings suffered from a lack of partnerships.
In another match, left-arm fast-bowler Yash Dayal took 3-20 as Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Delhi Capitals by 47 runs to register their fifth successive win in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and stay in contention for a Play-offs spot at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
After an 88-run partnership off 53 balls for the third wicket between Rajat Patidar (52) and Will Jacks (41), along with Cameron Green’s 32 not out, took RCB to 187/9, Dayal led a superb bowlers’ show on a slightly two-paced pitch to bowl out DC for 140.
Despite DC giving away 49 runs in the last five overs of RCB’S innings, they could never recover from the setback of losing four wickets in the Power-play.
Stand-in captain Axar Patel’s 57 off 39 balls kept Delhi Capitals in the hunt, but he found little support from other batters, as dropping four catches in the first innings came back to haunt them.
Sunday’s result means both RCB and DC are on 12 points, but the former are now in fifth place in the points table with a positive net run rate, as compared to the latter now in sixth position with a negative net run rate.
DC didn’t have an ideal start to their chase as a returning David Warner hit straight to long-on off Swapnil Singh in the opening over. It turned for worse as Yash Dayal bounced out Abishek Porel off his first ball, while Jake Fraser-mcgurk, after hitting four boundaries, was run-out from non-striker’s end as Dayal, in his follow-through, got a finger on the straight drive from Shai Hope to catch him out of the crease.
When Kumar Kushagra was trapped plumb lbw by Mohammed Siraj, DC were reduced to 30/4 in 3.3 overs. Shai Hope launched a fightback by creaming Yash Dayal for three fours, while Axar hit two boundaries off Siraj as DC ended the Powerplay at 54/4. Though Axar hit some boundaries, RCB were able to keep DC on a leash.