Rajasthan Royals clinch an important win against Chennai Super Kings on Monday to stay alive in IPL.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will not be playing in the playoffs of IPL 2020. MS Dhoni’s men suffered yet another big defeat in the tournament as Rajasthan Royals (RR) cruised to a comfortable win by seven wickets on October 19 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
After winning the toss, CSK decided to bat first. They managed to post an under-par score of 125 runs in 20 overs. Apart from initial setbacks, RR chased it down with ease in 17 overs to move up in the table. RR still needs results and luck to qualify for playoffs, but CSK’s hopes are definitely dashed after this result. Here are some important takeaways from the game on Monday.
Baffling batting approach by CSK
On numerous occasions, CSK’s batting has let them down in this tournament. They struggle to score quickly in the powerplay, which gives an extremely poor platform for other batsmen. Moreover, the batsmen also found it difficult to rotate the strike in the middle overs.
Against RR, CSK had an awfully slow start to the innings as the experiment to sustain with Sam Curran at the top order continues to fail. After quick wickets in the first half of the innings, Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja showed very little intent to score quickly to give the bowlers something to defend. With playoffs not in the picture, it will be interesting to see whether CSK alter their batting approach.
Jos Butler gets going for RR
After Steve Smith got back to form against Kolkata Knight Riders last weekend, it was time for Jos Butler to get back to his best. The Englishman managed to score runs freely on a pitch where other batsmen found it difficult to bat fluently.
Butler managed to score 70 runs in 48 balls to rescue RR from a state of bother as they lost three wickets in the powerplay. RR will be pleased to see both the premier overseas batsmen are back to their best. Considering all games are do or die for RR, Buttler’s return to form will be welcome news for the team.
Another disappointing evening for Sanju Samson
While Buttler got back to his best on Monday, Samson had another poor outing for RR. After scoring runs for fun in the first couple of games in the tournament, Samson has struggled to score a fifty in the next eight games.
It is a cause of concern for RR since Samson is a crucial middle-order batsman. Even in situations when he gets his eye in, Samson manages to throw it away by playing a silly shot. With four games left in the league, RR will be hoping that Samson can stitch a run of good scores to propel RR into the playoffs.
By KiranThakare