New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) Pacers Akash Madhwal and Yudhvir Singh Charak picked three-fers each, while young Vaibhav Suryavanshi top-scored with a delightful 57 as Rajasthan Royals signed off from IPL 2025 on a high via a clinical six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
The result also means that CSK will now finish IPL 2025 at the bottom of the points table, unless they beat table-toppers Gujarat Titans by a big margin on Sunday. On a pitch which looked good for batting Madhwal and Charak led an excellent bowling performance from RR to keep CSK to 187/8 which looked a bit short of a winning score, despite Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis hitting 40s each.
While Yudhvir, coming in for Fazalhaq Farooqi, rocked in the power-play to pick 3-47, Madhwal nailed yorkers at will and used some reverse swing at the back end to end with 3-29. In the chase, 14-year-old wonderkid Suryavanshi delighted everyone with his four boundaries and as many sixes.
He also found support from captain Sanju Samson making 42 while Dhruv Jurel hit a lovely 31 not out off 12 balls to help RR complete the chase with 17 balls to spare, as RR buried their ghosts of previous faltering run-chases in the season.
The majorly yellow jersey wearing and CSK supporting crowd were dejected when Yudhvir had Devon Conway chipping to mid-off, before forcing Urvil Patel to chip to a back-pedaling Kwena Maphaka at mid-on. Teenaged Mhatre thrilled everyone by pulling and lofting Tushar Deshpande for a brace of boundaries, before Ravichandran Ashwin glanced and then flicked Yudhvir beautifully off the front foot for four and six respectively.
Mhatre capitalised on the free hit by backing away to pull Yudhvir for six, before slashing him through cover for four, as 24 runs came off fourth over. The introduction of Maphaka didn’t change matters as Mhatre slashed and lofted him for a brace of boundaries. He took a liking to Deshpande’s pace by swiping, pulling and upper-cutting him for a hat-trick of fours.
But in a bid to hit Deshpande down the ground, Mhatre didn’t time the loft and was caught by diving long-on, as his 56-run stand with Ashwin came to an end. CSK again lost wickets in quick succession as Ashwin lofted to deep mid-wicket off Wanindu Hasaranga, while Ravindra Jadeja flicked uppishly to short mid-wicket and become Yudhvir’s third scalp.
Brevis wowed the Delhi crowd via four jaw-dropping boundaries – with his flat pulled six off Riyan Parag and lofting Yudhvir for a maximum with a bottom-handed whip being the standouts.
RR eventually dried the runs towards Brevis, and that resulted in him losing his off-stump to Madhwal. The pacer was the key reason why RR squeezed the run flow from 18th over – resulting in Dube and Dhoni falling to him in the final over – as 17 runs came off the last three overs.
Yashasvi Jaiswal began RR’s chase with a gloved four off Khaleel Ahmed, before lofting Anshul Kamboj over cover-point for six. But after the ball stopped swinging, Jaiswal took Ahmed to cleaners via his cuts and lofts fetching him three fours and a six. But Jaiswal fell for 36 when he went swiped the line against a good length ball from Kamboj and lost his off-stump.
Samson and Suryavanshi were exquisite in their loft and leaning drive off Ahmed and Kamboj respectively, as RR ended power-play at 56/1. Samson later lofted Ashwin for a down the ground six, while Suryavanshi thumped Noor Ahmad off backfoot for six, before muscling him for two boundaries, as 17 runs came off eighth over.
There was no stopping Suryavanshi as he thwacked Jadeja for two sixes over long-on fence, before reaching his fifty by whacking Ahmad for six. After Samson slammed Matheesha Pathirana for two boundaries, he was foxed by a carrom ball from Ashwin and holed out to long-on.
Four balls later, Ashwin stuck again as Suryavanshi mistimed his hoick to backward point and fall for 57 off 33 balls. Despite Ahmad’s quicker googly castling Riyan Parag, Jurel swept him for four, apart from pulling and paddling Jadeja for six and four respectively, and heaving Ashwin for a maximum.
Shimron Hetmyer smacked Ashwin for a six and four, before Jurel fittingly hit the winning maximum by smacking Pathirana over mid-wicket, as RR signed off from a forgettable IPL 2025 season with a clinical win.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 187/8 in 20 overs (Ayush Mhatre 43, Dewald Brevis 42; Akash Madhwal 3-29, Yudhvir Singh Charak 3-47) lost to Rajasthan Royals 188/4 in 17.1 overs (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 57, Sanju Samson 41; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-41, Anshul Kamboj 1-2) by six wickets
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