RAJASTHAN TAKEN FOR A ROYAL RIDE BY WATSON
On Thursday it was Chris Gayle’s ton that rocked Sunrisers Hyderabad and gave King XI Punjab a 15-run win. On Friday Shane Watson did the honours for Chennai Super Kings scoring 106, his third century in IPL history, to propel them to a 64-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
The Australian all-rounder took just 51 deliveries to bring up his century which was studded with nine boundaries and six sixes as CSK posted 204 for 5 and later bowled out Rajasthan for 140.
Barring Ben Stokes’ 45 from 37 balls (3x4, 1x6) and Jos Buttler’s 22 from 17 balls (1x4, 1x6), the rest of the Hyderabad batsmen found it tough against some disciplined bowling from CSK.
Earlier, put in to bat, Chennai were off to a decent start as openers Watson and Ambati Rayudu (12) shared a 50-run partnership for the opening wicket in 4.2 overs.
Medium pacer Ben Laughlin drew the first blood for Rajasthan as he sent back Rayudu in the fifth over.
Watson was then joined by Suresh Raina and the duo stitched together a 81-run partnership for the second wicket. Raina chipped in with a crucial 47-run knock before falling in the 12th over to a Shreyas Gopal delivery which left CSK on 131 for 2.
CSK then lost the wickets of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (5) and Sam Billings (3) with the addition of another 30 runs. It was leggie Shreyas again, who struck to dismiss both the Chennai batters.
Meanwhile, Watson kept the scoreboard ticking and added 41 runs with Dwayne Bravo to take CSK past the 200-run mark. Bravo remained unbeaten on 24 runs facing 16 balls.
The Australian all-rounder however, fell in the last over but it was too late for Rajasthan as CSK posted a massive 205-run target against them.
For Rajasthan, Shreyas was the pick of the bowlers, with figures of 3 for 20, while Australian Laughlin bagged a couple of wickets conceding 38 runs.
Both the sides made a couple of changes as Suresh Raina and Karn Sharma replaced Murli Vijay and Harbhajan Singh for CSK.
On the other hand, Heinrich Klaasen and Stuart Binny made it to the playing XI replacing Darcy Short and Dhawal Kulkarni. —