Chennai crush Rajasthan by 63 runs

Chennai Super Kings' powerful batting line-up spoiled Shane Warne's first game since announcing his retirement and left Rajasthan Royals needing at least two wins from their remaining matches to qualify. Chennai's top four all played their part to set up the win that pushed their side to 14 points, one victory away from virtually sealing their spot in the play-offs.

Scorecard

There was some controversy ahead of the game as Warne said Rajasthan were forced to change the track on which the match was to be played. It proved to be a pitch which wasn't the typical slow-and-low Jaipur surface, the sort on which Rajasthan have built up their intimidating home record. Instead, it was a quicker track that favoured stroke-making, more suited to Chennai's bruising top order.

Michael Hussey provided the initial impetus as M Vijay took his time to find his range. It was the usual unfussy innings from Hussey. He relied on power-hits only for the rare heaves to midwicket, otherwise it was more about touch and placement. There was a reverse-sweep off Ashok Maneria, and plenty of eye-catching drives through the off-side. Just as the man averaging above 50 in the IPL, seemed set for another half-century, he was foxed by Johan Botha with a full delivery which Hussey looked to dispatch over the vacant midwicket to the short boundary.

While Hussey was stroking it at a strike-rate nearly 200, M Vijay was initially cautious as he was coming in off three failures. It would have been a fourth flop if Ajinkya Rahane had clasped a chance in the fourth over at backward point. Soon after the reprieve Vijay showed signs of the destroyer of 2010, with his favourite lofts over the leg side making a regular appearance. All his boundaries - three sixes and two fours - were in the arc from square leg to long-on, a couple came perilously close to the knocking over the redesigned IPL trophy.

With Suresh Raina regularly finding the cover boundary and Vijay muscling a half-century, Chennai galloped to 117 for 1 in 13 overs. During their stand, the most likely mode of dismissal seemed to be a run-out. There was plenty of confused calling and lazy running, and they escaped several times before a dawdling Vijay was caught out by a direct hit from Botha.

There was no let-up even after that dismissal as MS Dhoni came out blazing. He thrashed Siddharth Trivedi onto the roof of the first tier for his first six before unleashing a series of piledrivers that powered Chennai close to 200. In between, Dhoni also pushed his team-mates to race through the wickets, pressurising the Rajasthan fielders and picking off extra runs.

The outfield was extremely quick, there was a short square boundary, but Rajasthan still needed either Shane Watson or Ross Taylor to play a blinder to pull off the chase. Neither did, and that killed Rajasthan's challenge. After Rahul Dravid fell for a chancy 20, Watson holed out in the sixth over attempting his trademark slog-sweep. Taylor was gone two overs later, lashing a full delivery from Albie Morkel to deep point which left them at 63 for 3. Ajinkya Rahane unfurled a series of boundaries to reach his second Twenty20 half-century but that proved too little to curb the spiralling asking-rate and Chennai walked to a 63-run victory.