Rajasthan Royals (RR) outplayed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 32 runs at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur in Match 37 of IPL 2023 on Thursday (April 27).

RR captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first as opener Yashasvi Jaiswal played his career-best IPL knock of 77 off 43 balls, while Dhruv Jurel (34), Devdutt Padikkal (27*), and Jos Buttler (27) made useful contributions to help the home team post 202/5 on the board.

CSK's chase never caught momentum as apart from Ruturaj Gaikwad (47) and Shivam Dube (52), none of the other batters could get going. Adam Zampa (3/22) and Ravichandran Ashwin (2/35) were the main wicket-takers for RR, who clinched a 32-run win to displace CSK from the top spot of the points table and send them plummeting to third.

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At the post-match presentation, MS Dhoni, captain of CSK, said the 203-run target was above par, “It (target) was quite a bit above par. The reason was the first six overs, gave too many runs, but at the same time the pitch was best to bat on at that time. Even when they were finding the edges kept going for boundaries. They got par+ score and we were not able to stop the runs,” he said.

Dhoni also defended Sri Lankan rookie pacer Matheesha Pathirana who conceded 48 runs in his four overs, as he said, “I felt his (Pathirana) bowling was very good, not that he bowled badly. The scorecard doesn't reflect how well he bowled,”

Dhoni also lauded RR youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal for his knock, saying that, “Yashasvi batted really well, important to go after the bowlers, took calculated risks. It was slightly easier against our bowlers because we had to assess the right lengths. Even then Yashasvi batted well at the top end and at the end Jurel batted really well,”

Finally, Dhoni was asked about the strong support for him at the venue to which he said, “I think they will be chasing me throughout. This is a very special venue, my first ODI hundred in Vizag gave me some 10 games, but the 183 over here gave me the chance for one year, so this venue is close to my heart. It was good to come back here.”

Dhoni had scored his ODI career-best of 183* against Sri Lanka at Jaipur in 2005, helping India chase down the target of 299 with 23 balls to spare.