Chennai, May 12 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings have beaten the Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in Match 61 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, moving within inches of qualifying for the Playoffs with just one game remaining.

After a superb bowling performance that restricted Rajasthan Royals to 141/5 in 20 overs, Ruturaj Gaikwad played a true captain's inning scoring 42 runs not out as the young opener stood like a rock in front of the potent bowling attack scoring and powering his team to a comfortable victory.

Although Gaikwad played as the anchor, it was the explosiveness of Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell and Shivam Dube that got CSK over the line comfortably,

Solid batting combined with fine bowling efforts by pacers Simarjeet Singh and Tushar Deshpande helped Chennai Super Kings put and apply continuous pressure throughout the game and secure an important victory.

Chennai got off to a blistering start in their chase of 142 thanks to New Zealand prodigy, Rachin Ravindra. The Kiwi opening batter targeted the opening bowling pair of Trent Boult and Sandeep Sharma. He even sent the crowd into a frenzy when he hit his variation of the ‘helicopter shot’ as he flicked Sandeep Sharma for a six over mid-wicket.

The early damage being done to the pacers saw Rajasthan introduce a man who is all too familiar with the track at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Ravichandran Ashwin. In an attempt to attack Ashwin, Ravindra hit the ball straight in the air and was caught and bowled. His innings of 27 runs came to an end.

Daryll Mitchell followed the attacking intent of his fellow countrymate as he started on the front foot which included hitting twelve runs off Ashwin’s overpowering Chennai’s Powerplay score to 56/1.

Chennai were looking to end the game as soon as possible considering the close run-rate predicament they might find themselves in with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Rajasthan Royals called upon their most trusted bowler Yuzvendra Chahal to stop the run-flow.

The right-arm leg-break bowler answered the call of his captain as he caught Mitchell, who was prancing down the pitch and missed the ball completely to be given out for LBW which was confirmed upon review.

Moeen Ali’s introduction in the game came when the run rate had already fallen to a run a ball and fantastic bowling by Chahal, Ashwin, Avesh Khan and Nandre Burger saw pressure build on the Chennai batsmen.

The men in yellow went 40 balls without hitting a boundary which saw Ali try and clear the boundary off a full-length delivery by Burger but was caught by Avesh Khan near the boundary rope.

The Royals looked to be creeping back into the game with the run rate slowly creeping up until Shivam Dube decided to take matters into his own hands in the 14th over when he smashed 14 runs off the first three deliveries. Dube also gave away his wicket on the last ball of the over but not before the damage was done.

Shivam Dube’s dismissal was Ravichandran Ashwin’s 50th wicket at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. He became the sixth bowler to do so. Sunil Narine, Lasith Malinga, Amit Mishra, Yuvzendra Chahal and Jasprit Bumrah are the other five bowlers in the elite list.

Ravindra Jadeja will be remembering the match for all the wrong reasons as he was given out for obstructing the field after the left-arm all-rounder intentionally stopped the ball from hitting the stumps on an attempted run-out, putting Chennai in a tricky situation.

After the introduction of Impact Player Sameer Rizvi, Chennai Super King completed the chase comfortably securing their seventh victory in 13 games. They will now be travelling to Bangalore to face the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final game of the league phase.

Brief scores:

Rajasthan Royals 141/5 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 47 not out, Dhruv Jurel 28, Yashasvi Jaiswal 24; Simarjeet Singh 3-26, Tushar Deshpande 2-30) lost to Chennai Super Kings 145/5 in 18.2 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 42 not out, Rachin Ravindra 27; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-35, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-22) by five wickets.