IPL 2020, Match 4 – Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings – Royals register first IPL 2020 win after six-hitting bonanza
A delightful display of clean hitting from Samson, Smith, and Archer, later on, was enough for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) to register a 16-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 4th game of the 2020 IPL.
Put in to bat, Royals were 11 for the loss of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first three overs when Sanju Samson joined his skipper, Steven Smith in the middle. From there on, it was stroke-play of the highest order from the duo, with Samson taking the aerial route on several occasions. Both Samson and Smith targeted the slow bowlers after the end of the powerplay, with Piyush Chawla going for 47 in his first two overs.
The wicket of Samson in the 12th over, followed by the run out of David Miller stemmed things down in the middle overs. CSK started picking wickets at regular intervals as Rajasthan ended up with 186 with one over left and numbers 8 and 9 in the middle. It was that one over that made the difference. Jofra Archer swung at everything Lungi Ngidi bowled at him, connecting on 4 occasions, as the Rajasthan Royals set a target of 217 for the Chennai Super Kings.
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A frustratingly slow start took place from CSK, as the duo of Shane Watson and Murali Vijay put on 36 in the first five overs. Watson started to accelerate, but feel cheaply to Rahul Tewatia, and so did his opening partner, Vijay, in the following over off Shreyas Gopal. Sam Curran, promoted up the order to enhance the run rate, did so for a short span of time before being outfoxed by Tewatia and stumped neatly by Samson. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who recently recovered from COVID-19, fell in the same manner next ball.
Faf du Plessis and Kedar Jadhav mostly dealt with singles and doubles in the middle overs as the run rate started to climb out of reach. Dhoni’s arrival to the crease after Jadhav’s wicket did not help things either, as the former Indian skipper looked rusty with the bat, having been away from the game for so long. Faf du Plessis, who hadn’t hit a boundary until his 18th delivery, started to clear the fence on quite a few occasions in an elegant fashion, but there was way too much to be done at the end. Du Plessis was dismissed in the penultimate over as the Chennai Super Kings fell short of the target by 17 runs, handing the Rajasthan Royals their first win in their 2020 IPL campaign.
Faf du Plessis took too long to accelerate
What went wrong for CSK?
1) Failure to capitalize on a good start with the ball
The Chennai Super Kings did get off to a good start with the ball, conceding only 17 runs in the first half of the powerplay along with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal. But unfortunately, there were far too many loose deliveries from the fast bowling trio of Deepak Chahar, Sam Curran, and Lungi Ngidi, from thereon. Chahar, in particular, seemed to be all over the place in his third over, conceding 14 runs in the process, the same number of runs he had given away in his first two. That allowed the duo of Sanju Samson and Steven Smith to comfortably settle in and tear into the spinners.
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2) The last over from Lungi Ngidi
It’s not every day you get to see a number 9 batsman smashing 4 consecutive sixes off…. wait for it…. 2 deliveries. Yet, that was what Jofra Archer did today, which help the Rajasthan Royals end the innings with a flourish and which seemed to make all the difference at the very end. CSK, after recovering from the onslaught from Sanju Samson and Steven Smith, managed to keep the Royals down to 186 until the 19th over, only for all the hard work in the overs prior to the last one being undone.
It almost felt like Archer was practicing range-hitting after a long net session, as the ball cleared the roof on multiple occasions. Lungisani Ngidi neither had control over his front foot landing nor his line and length, overstepping on two consecutive occasions. Not a single full-length delivery was attempted by the South African pacer, let alone landing a yorker correctly. He kept rolling his fingers and pitching the ball on a length, ending up right in the arc of Archer’s bat swing.
3) The intent in CSK’s batting
Where do we even begin? Chasing a target of 217 on a Cricket ground as small as Sharjah, CSK were 53/0 after the end of the powerplay. Half the game was lost for the men in yellow by then itself. Murali Vijay, who had been taking the mickey out of the bowlers in the Tamil Nadu Premier League over the past season or two with his antics while batting, departed for a run-a-ball 21 at the end of the 8th over. There were ample loose deliveries from the Rajasthan Royals spinners first up, which the opening duo of Vijay and Shane Watson failed to capitalize on.
It took the loss of 2 wickets for the CSK camp to realize that they can send in their lower-order batsmen who can inject some life into the chase, and they sent in Sam Curran, the left-hander to do exactly the same thing he did against MI, take on the two bowlers who were spinning the ball back into him. If that was what they had in mind, they could have sent Jadeja in after Curran fell to keep the big-hitting prowess going.
Instead, it was the young Ruturaj Gaikwad who fell victim to the situation, although, he, with the type of Cricketing brain he has, could have done better than running down the pitch to a flat, straighter one first ball. The acceleration did come from Faf du Plessis towards the end, but there was too much to do for him and skipper MS Dhoni, who did provide the ‘entertainment’ like Mr. Sunil Gavaskar stated while commentating, hitting three towering sixes and helping CSK get to 200, 17 short of the target but which helped in causing lesser damage to their Net Run Rate, something that CSK can bank on in the latter stages of the tournament.