A sensational bowling display followed by an assured performance with the bat saw Rajasthan register a comfortable seven-wicket win over Chennai.
Here are the key talking points from the contest:
Chennai Jos-tled
Defending a modest total of 126, Chennai were in the hunt for early wickets and managed to get them, picking up three wickets in a space of two runs to reduce Rajasthan to 28/3. However, their hopes were quickly squashed by a sensational batting performance from Jos Buttler, who in his new role as the #5 batsman scored 70 off 48, seemingly batting on a different surface and guiding Rajasthan to a comfortable seven-wicket victory.
Faf, Ambati, Jadeja and who?
Chennai's struggles with the bat continued as only one of the eight batsmen that had the opportunity to bat managed to score over 30 runs in the contest. Outside of Faf Du Plessis and Ambati Rayudu at the top of the batting order and Ravindra Jadeja towards its end, Chennai's batsmen are in horrible form. When at least two of these three fail to score well, Chennai usually finish with a rubbish score. While their bowling hasn’t been top-notch, it is their batting that has let them down miserably this season.
Rajasthan's rampant spin duo
While it was Chennai's spinners who were touted to bamboozle Rajasthan, the latter’s spin duo of Shreyas Gopal and all-rounder Rahul Tewatia flipped the script, bowling sensational spells that restricted Chennai to just 125 runs in their batting effort. Gopal was the pick of the bowlers on either side, giving away just 14 runs in his four overs while also dismissing the set Sam Curran. Tewatia, who has been Rajasthan's MVP this season, couldn’t play hero with the bat in this contest, but bowled a terrific spell of 1-18 in his quota of four overs.
Sanju Sam-sunk?
Rajasthan's Sanju Samson started the season with a 74 followed by an 85 and was seemingly poised to have a huge season. However, in the subsequent eight matches, Samson has scored 77 runs at a miserable average of 9.63, further illustrating how his inconsistency has hindered his progress and curbed his chances of playing for the Indian team. Samson has four games to redeem this season, however, given his current form, it seems far-fetched that he'd able to finish the campaign the way he kicked it off.
Feature image courtesy: Twitter / @IndianT20League
