ROYAL HIGHNESS

Both teams score 200 but Rajasthan beat Super Kings

Sharjah, Sept. 22: Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings by

16 runs in an IPL game on Tuesday riding on brilliant performances from Sanju Samson (74 off 32 balls), Steve Smith (69 off

47 balls) and Jofra Archer

(27 off 8 balls, 1/26). Batting first Royals scored 216/7 with the help of 17 sixes hit by their batsmen and nine by Samson alone.

In reply, CSK could manage 200/6 with Faf du Plessis scoring 72 off 37 ball with the help of seven sixes. Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 29 off 17 balls but it was Rahul Tewatia’s leg breaks that caused a lot of damage to top order. Tewatia took

3/37 in his four overs while Archer bowled a brilliant 19th over to seal the match.

Sent into bat, Rajasthan lost young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (6) in the third over but then Samson joined hands with Smith as the duo played sensibly initially before the Kerala wicket-keeper batsman went hammer and tongs at opposition spinners.

Samson (74 off 32) looked in great nick, while Smith, returning to competitive cricket after recovering from concussion suffered before the ODI series against England, made 67 off 49 balls to lay the base for Rajasthan’s total.

In the final over, Jofra Archer (27 off 8 balls) hit four sixes off Lungi Ngidi as Royals got 30 runs to take the score past 215.

In all, Royals hit 17 sixes with Samson accounting for nine of them and Smith and Archer having four each in their kitties.

While Smith played the second fiddle initially, Samson took the CSK spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla to task

taking 95 runs of overs collectively.

Introduced into the attack in the seventh over, Jadeja was clobbered for consecutive sixes by Samson before Chawla went for four sixes in his first over — three by Samson and one by Smith.

Samson, thus, brought up his quickest IPL fifty in just 19 balls with the help of one boundary and six hits over the fence.

If that was not enough for Chawla, the leg-spinner again leaked in his next over as both Samson and Smith took him to cleaners.

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—BCCI Steve Smith of the Rajasthan Royals plays a shot on way to his half-century against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.