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Rajasthan Royals clinch fourth straight win

Rajasthan Royals romped home to a comprehensive 17-run victory over Chennai Super Kings.

Zeecric Bureau
Ahmedabad: Rajasthan Royals trounced Chennai Super Kings by 17 runs to record their fourth win on the trot and consolidate themselves to the third position on the Indian Premier League points table. A hat-trick of wickets in the final over bowled by Thilana Thushara helped Chennai Super Kings restrict Rajasthan Royals to 177/8 from 20 overs in an IPL league match at Ahmedabad on Sunday. Paras Dogra (5 runs, 3 balls), Jhumjhunwala (11 runs, 6 balls) and Shane Warne (0 off 0 balls) were the batsmen who perished in pursuit of quick runs. Earlier, Shadab Jakati did the star turn for Super Kings with key wickets of dangerous Yusuf Pathan 8 runs, 6 balls) and Faiz Fazal (17 runs, 18 balls) before they could inflict any damage as the Royals fell atleast 20 short of what they seemed to be on course for mid-way through their innings. Meanwhile, Naman Ojha played a stellar role with the bat and was instrumental in Royals posting a highly competitive total Super Kings. Opening the batting for his side, he made a brilliant 80 from just 49 balls with 6 fours and 5 sixes. Initially though, it was Michael Lumb who had tore into the Chennai Super Kings attacks right from the word go. He blazed away to 30 runs from just 16 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes until Albie Morkel, who had bore the bulk of Lumb’s brunt, managed to pick up his wicket. Lumb was duped by a slower one, and ended up lobbing a simple catch to Thilana Thushara at mid-off. After Shane Warne had on the toss for Royals and elected to bat first on a placid track at the Motera at Ahmedabad, they were 47/1 after 4 overs. After Lumb’s dismissal, Ojha took over the mantle of aggressor, taking the Royals to 86/1 after 9 overs. However successive fall of wickets of Pathan and Faizal dented the scoring-rate to some extent as the former champions moved to 129/3 after 15 overs. Adam Voges chipped in with a fluent 20 off 19 balls bolster the Royals towards the end overs. Royals are on resurgence having won 3 games on a trot after losing the first 3 games and are presently occupying third place on the IPL points table while the struggling Super Kings, with just 2 wins from 6 games are languishing at the seventh place. Teams: Rajasthan Royals: SK Warne*, SA Asnodkar, J Botha, FY Fazal, AJ Finch, AA Jhunjhunwala, Kamran Khan, MJ Lumb, M Morkel, S Narwal, NV Ojha†, MM Patel, YK Pathan, AG Paunikar†, SA Quadri, AS Raut, A Singh, SW Tait, SK Trivedi, A Uniyal, AC Voges, SB Wagh Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni*†, R Ashwin, HK Badani, S Badrinath, GJ Bailey, L Balaji, DE Bollinger, C Ganapathy, MS Gony, ML Hayden, MEK Hussey, SB Jakati, AB Karthik, JM Kemp, JA Morkel, M Muralitharan, M Ntini, PA Patel†, NLTC Perera, SK Raina, T Thushara, S Tyagi, M Vijay