If you want to know the struggle story of Chennai in 2020, the encounter against Rajasthan is enough to describe. On a challenging track, Rajasthan outclassed Chennai to send them at the bottom and the potential elimination as well. Despite Chahar's strike, Buttler rescued Rajasthan to cross the finishing line.
Toss: Chennai opted to bat first
Team Changes: Piyush Chawla and Josh Hazlewood come in (Chennai)
Ankit Rajpoot comes in (Rajasthan)
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Detailed Match Report
Chennai struggled from the beginning as Archer got du Plessis with a stunning catch from Buttler. Tyagi got Watson in 4th over to put pressure on Chennai. Sam Curran was also off the colour and got out on 22. Tewatia strike in his first over to leave Chennai at 59/4 in 10-overs. Jadeja and Dhoni showed some grittiness and put 51 runs to help Chennai to cross 100. In flag-overs, they missed the opportunity to fire against the pacers. In last 5 overs, Chennai managed to score only 36 runs to set a below per total of 125 in the end.
Deepak Chahar strikes with a wicket of Stokes to give a first blow to Rajasthan. In next over, Uthappa got out after a poor shot. Chahar strike one more time to send Samson to pavilion. The powerplay score read 31/3 and Rajasthan required a sensible approach to guide this chase. Chahar bowled his 4 overs in first 8 and finished the spell with 4-1-18-2. Jos Buttler and Smith tried to rescue Rajasthan from a pressure phase of the game. Smith showed the grit and Buttler tried fabulous shots in the middle to keep Rajasthan in the game. The duo targeted Thakur to find the extra runs. Buttler scored his half-century off 37 balls in 15th over. In Piyush Chawla's 2nd over, he got 16 runs to break all the hopes for Chennai. Smith and Buttler used their experience to make this chase easier. With this win, Rajasthan kept their hopes for the playoffs and moved to middle in the table.
Star Performer of the Match
Jos Buttler is our star performer of the match. Rajasthan was struggling at 28/3 in the powerplay and the pressure was high. The English batsman took dew deliveries to settle and in the pressure phase, he got boundaries to keep Rajasthan close to the target. He scored a fine half-century under pressure to lead Rajasthan a much-needed victory.
Top 5 players who made an impact in the game
R Jadeja 35 (30)
Deepak Chahar 4-1-18-2
Shreyas Gopal 4-0-13-1
Jos Buttler 70 (48)
Steve Smith 26 (34)
