Mon, 09 May 2011 - IP Rajasthan vs IP Chennai, IPL 2011, 52nd Match - Bulletin

Chennai breach Jaipur fortress in style

Rajasthan were at last beaten at the SMS stadium in Jaipur, something that hasn’t happened all season. Chennai produced a clinical display and outclassed Rajasthan by a big margin of 63 runs. The MS Dhoni-led side have galloped to second place by virtue of this win and look set for a top-four spot and now, the home team have a tough job ahead , win all their three matches to cement a slot in the play-offs.

Rajasthan had to play out of their skin to threaten the daunting target of 196 runs set by Chennai. Their batting has not looked in shape all season; to do this they needed one of their top three to do a Chris Gayle. But that was not to be and hence could not get anywhere near the Chennai score.

Although, Rajasthan chase got off to a good start but the tempo could not be maintained for a long time and the wobbly batting just collapsed under the mounting asking rate. Both Watson and Taylor went cheaply to end hope of a Rajasthan turn around. Only Ajinkya Rahane put up some sort of resistance with a well made half century.

The Chennai bowling was once again up to the mark, not allowing the batsmen any sort of width to work with. Bollinger once again reaped a rich haul of three wickets with R Ashwin and Suresh Raina each claiming two scalps.

Earlier, Chennai made full use of the good batting deck and muscled their way to a massive score of 196 runs. The strong batting looked in full flow with everybody scoring at will, even an out of form Murli Vijay regained his touch although it was his partner Michael Hussey who set the pace early on hitting some lovely boundaries. He scored a brisk 46 runs off just 30 deliveries with eight hits to the ropes and gave Chennai an ideal start with an opening partnership of 77 runs at a decent rate.

However, Vijay got a reprieve at the beginning of his innings, Rahane dropping a sitter a backward point when the batsman had only made 4 runs. Once he started to middle the ball, the visitor’s score motored along. By the time, he ran himself out after a fine knock of 53 runs his team was on course for a huge score.

At 135 for 2 in the fifteenth over the Chennai captain, MS Dhoni walked in to partner Suresh Raina who was going great guns and Dhoni chose his favorite ground where he hit his 183 runs against Sri Lanka to unleash some bludgeoning strokes. His unbeaten knock of 41 runs was studded with three powerful hits over the ropes that powered Chennai to a score which in end was beyond the Rajasthan batsmen. Raina also played a breezy innings of 43 runs punctuated by 6 fours.

Rajasthan bowling has so far excelled only on helpful surfaces and that weakness was exposed today as their attack lacked bite and could not penetrate the Chennai batting. Except Johan Botha, all the bowlers were hammered with Watson leaking 47 runs in four overs. Even their talismanic captain, Warne failed to produce some magic and was expensive conceding 34 runs in his 4 over quota.