The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) gave the Rajasthan Royals (RR) a ‘royal’ thumping by beating the latter by a huge margin of 64 runs last night in the on-going Indian Premier League, 2018. This was incidentally CSK’s their first match in a ‘new home’ at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune.

Rahane called right when he and Dhoni walked out for the toss and had no qualms in asking CSK to bat first, apparently thinking of strangulating the team, which was playing in a new ‘home’ in Pune after CSK’s six remaining home matches in Chennai were called off in view of the Cauvery protests. BCCI and IPL management then decided to shift CSK’s home to a home (1200 km) away from home to Pune.

Rayudu departed during the middle of the fifth over but the score had reached 50 by then, thanks to some lusty hitting by all-rounder Shane Watson, who was in a raging mood against the team he once captained. Raina and Watson took the score to 131 in the 12 th over when Raina fell four short of his fifty. There was some lull in scoring as Royals pegged back the run-rate.

After Dhoni and Billings’ brief stay at the crease during when they managed 5 and 3 respectively, it was Bravo who joined the party with Watson as the duo added 41 runs in 4.4 overs. Watson, in the meantime, coasted to his third IPL century and remained not out with 106 off 57 balls with nine fours and six booming sixes. At the end of 20 overs, CSK finished with 202/4. RR’s seamers were taken to the cleaners, but spinner Shreyas Gopal did very well by taking 3/20 in four overs.

Though the CSK might have scored 10-20 runs lesser when compared to their position after 12 overs, it was still a good enough total to depend on a track which provided assistance to both the seamers and spinners. Seamer Deepak Chahar broke Royals’ top order by getting Rahane (16) and Sanju Samson (2) in three overs. Except for the English pair of Ben Stokes and Jos Butler which put on 45 runs for the fourth wicket, there was no notable contribution from other players as RR was bundled out for 140 in the 19 th over, thus losing the match by a whopping 64- run margin.

Shardul Thakur took 2 for 18 in three overs as Shane Watson was given the ‘Man of the Match’ award for his all-round performance of a century and a wicket in the three overs he bowled. With this win, CSK moves to the top of the table with 3 wins from four matches, enjoying a better Net Run Rate (NRR) than Kolkata Knight Riders, who too have same points by losing 2 out of their five matches so far. Royals have now won just 2 of their five matches so far.

Images Courtesy - IPL