Cricket

‘Ladies and gentlemen, now we're number 2’- fans are all smiles as Rajasthan confirms number 2 spot on the table

Rajasthan finished second on the ladder after beating Chennai by 5 wickets on Friday at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

author-image
Jennifer
New Update
Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin: (Image Source: BCCI/IPL)

In their last league match against Chennai, Rajasthan registered a 5-wicket win to help the team take the number 2 spot on the points table on Friday at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. With that win, they have confirmed their place in Qualifier 1. Sanju Samson and Co. will play against Gujarat in the Qualifier 1 match on Tuesday at Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata.

Advertisment

In pursuit of a 150-run total, Rajasthan lost Jos Buttler early in the second over. Buttler (2 off 5), once again, got out on a low score but Yashasvi Jaiswal gave the team an attacking start. He kept hitting boundaries at regular intervals and took the team to a good score of 52 for 1 at the end of the power play.

Sanju Samson, though, was struggling at the other end and his rusty knock of 15 runs in 20 balls, eventually, came to an end in the 9th over off Santner. Despite a brilliant start from Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rajasthan could only score 73 for 2 at the end of 10 overs. He lacked support from the other end and the game was evenly poised, at that stage.

Moeen Ali then had Padikkal bowled in the 12th over to peg Rajasthan further. To add further misery, Yashasvi Jaiswal (59 off 44) got out off Prashant Solanki in the 15th over and Shimron Hetmyer too mistimed one only to be caught at deep midwicket in the 17th over. Rajasthan had lost 5 wickets for 112 runs at 16.2 overs.

It looked like match was slipping out of the hands of Rajasthan. However, Ravichandran Ashwin then played a stellar unbeaten knock of 40 runs in 23 balls to help the team chase down the score in 19.4 overs.

Earlier, Rajasthan restricted Chennai to 150 runs in the first innings. Chennai didn’t make a great start as Ruturaj Gaikwad (2) got out on the last ball of the very first over. Chennai had scored only 15 runs in the first 3 overs. However, Moeen Ali then changed gears and wreaked havoc at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

He smashed Prasidh Krishna for 3 fours and 1 six in the 4th over. In the next over, he hammered Ravichandra Ashwin for 3 consecutive fours and 4 fours in a row to Trent Boult in the 6th over. At the end of the power play, Chennai had scored 75 runs for just 1 wicket.

Advertisment

However, once the power play got over, wickets fell at regular intervals and Chennai suddenly lost the plot. Devon Conway (16 off 14) and N Jagadeesan (1 off 4) went back to the hut 8th and 9th over and Ambati also followed them in the 11th over.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin spun a web around the opposition batters in the midde overs. MS Dhoni struggled to hit the straps as he could only manage to score 26 runs in 28 balls. The Men in Yellow struggled to score runs at a good rate after the power play. However, a stellar knock of 93 runs in 57 balls from Moeen Ali helped Chennai reach a competitive score of 150 runs at the end of the first innings.

For Rajasthan, Yuzvendra Chahal, once again starred with the ball as he returned with figures of 2 for 26 in 4 overs. Obed McCoy also returned with impressive figures of 2 for 20 in 4 overs.

Here's a look at some of the top reactions from the game:

ddjhdjd

IPL 2023 Cricket News