Chennai Super Kings made it three wins in a row after beating Rajasthan Royals by eight runs in their IPL 2019 encounter in Chennai.
After being put into bat, CSK didn't get off to a great start. They were struggling at 27/3 before MS Dhoni took over. Back-to-back fifty partnerships for the fourth and fifth wicket followed by a final flourish helped CSK post 175/5.
In response, RR were in trouble early as well, but useful cameos from Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer kept them in the contest but Dwayne Bravo bowled a brilliant last over to get his side over the line.
Here are the three main takeaways from SRH's win over RR:
Cometh the hour, cometh the man
On a tricky pitch that offered something for the bowlers and with CSK struggling at 27/3, MS Dhoni cane to the crease. The skipper paced his innings beautifully and was involved in two crucial partnerships with Suresh Raina and Dwayne Bravo to help CSK post 175/5.
In the 61 run partnership for the fourth wicket with Raina, Dhoni played second fiddle and seemed content to just rotate the strike and hit the odd boundary. In the 56-run stand with Bravo, he slowly changed gear and came to his own, bringing up his fifty.
But it was in the final over that he completed his assault on RR as he hit Jaydev Unadkat's last three legal balls for three sixes as he finished with a 46-ball 75, which is his second-best IPL score and his highest score in Chennai.
Did CSK do their dew diligence?
Mitchell Santner came in for his IPL debut and CSK had three spinners in their side. While that is not unusual in Chepauk, considering the impact dew had towards the end of CSK's innings, it may not have been smartest move irrespective of how the toss went.
While Imran Tahir still delivered as he finished with figures of 2/23 from his four overs, things didn't go according to plan with the two left-arm spinners (Santner and Jadeja). While Santner went for 26 in his two overs, Jadeja went for 23. Their two main weapons only bowled four overs.
That almost cost them in this encounter and going forward, CSK might have to factor in dew as well as the pitch in Chepauk.
Where next for the Royals?
It was a great start after winning the toss as they reduced CSK to 27/3. But they couldn't quite capitalize as they let the hosts off the hook as Dhoni turned back to the clock.
With the bat, they didn't get off to a great start but the middle-order came to the party but they just kept losing wickets at the wrong time and that cost them in the end.
So far this season, they have just been unable to click in all departments in the same game. If the top-order fires, the middle-order fails or vice versa. The bowling is still a concern as they don't have a lot of wicket-taking options aside from Archer.
It will be interesting to see where they go from here and what changes they make to the side.