Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings by 7 wickets at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and registered their fourth win of the season while Chennai Super Kings suffered their seventh loss.
Earlier Chennai Super Kings won the toss and opted to bat first. Their openers Faf du Plessis and Sam Curran couldn't give a good start as du Plessis got out off Archer bowling for just 10 runs while Curran struggled to rotate strike. Shane Watson hit two fours on the first two balls but on the third Kartik Tyagi dismissed him.
Shreyas Gopal sent Curran back to the dressing room while Rayudu perished off Tewatia bowling and at 56/4 in 10 overs they're in trouble. MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja tried to rebuild the innings but couldn't score quick runs and eventually Chennai finished on 125/5 in 20 overs.
In reply Rajasthan Royals also had a very poor start as Ben Stokes, Robin Uthappa and Sanju Samson got out off Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood bowling and at 28/3 the match was balanced. Jos Buttler counter-attacked and kept smashing all Chennai bowlers and put them on the back foot and his 70* runs knock and captain Smith's useful knock of 26* runs took their team home in the 18th over.
All the major stats and facts from the 37th match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi :
9 - This was Rajasthan Royals' 9th win over Chennai Super Kings in IPL - the joint second-most by any team.
Most wins against CSK in IPL -
17 - Mumbai Indians
9 - Rajasthan Royals / Royal Challengers Bangalore / Kings XI Punjab
8 - Delhi Capitals / Kolkata Knight Riders
77 - Sanju Samson has scored only 77 runs at an average of 9.7 in his last 8 IPL innings.
200 - This was MS Dhoni's 200th IPL match - the first-ever player to play 200 matches in IPL.
Most matches in IPL (By players) -
200 - MS Dhoni
197 - Rohit Sharma
193 - Suresh Raina
191 - Dinesh Karthik
186 - Virat Kohli
1000 - Steven Smith when on 21, completed 1000 runs for Rajasthan Royals in IPL. He is the seventh batsman to achieve this milestone.
1000 or more runs for RR in IPL -
2810 - Ajinkya Rahane
2372 - Shane Watson
1768 - Sanju Samson
1276 - Rahul Dravid
1121 - Jos Buttler
1011 - Yusuf Pathan
1005 - Steven Smith
4000 - MS Dhoni has completed 4000 runs for Chennai Super Kings in IPL - only the second batsman to achieve this feat.
Most runs for CSK in IPL -
4527 - Suresh Raina
4022 - MS Dhoni
2014 - Faf du Plessis
1768 - Mike Hussey
1708 - Murali Vijay
5000 - Ambati Rayudu when on 5, completed 5000 runs in T20 cricket. He has scored total of 5008 runs in 231 T20 matches.
