 "While Rajasthan Royals' Nitish Rana was adjudged the Player of the Match for his outstanding knock of 81 off 36 balls, Chennai Super Kings legend MS Dhoni nearly stole the show towards the end of the match. PTI/AP")
After an indifferent start to the season with back-to-back defeats, Rajasthan Royals finally opened their account in the 2025 Indian Premier League with a thrilling 6-run victory over Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati on Sunday. The ‘Yellow Army’, on the other hand, have now suffered consecutive losses after starting their season with a four-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians.
Though they came up with a much better performance against the Royals in the final game of the season at Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium after getting thoroughly outplayed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru at home, CSK failed to capitalise on key moments and ended up falling just one hit short of the target .
Before turning our attention to MI’s first home game of the season, against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday, we take a look at some of the key moments from Sunday’s RR-CSK encounter:
Rana lays the foundation for RR’s match-winning total
After putting up a sub-par total against Kolkata Knight Riders in Guwahati on Wednesday that was easily eclipsed thanks to Quinton de Kock’s unbeaten 97, the Royals were off to a shaky start once again at the same venue, this time against Chennai Super Kings with Yashasvi Jaiswal getting dismissed in the first over. However, Nitish Rana’s knock of 81 off just 36 deliveries, in which he smashed 10 fours and five sixes, proved to be the difference between the two sides in the evening game of the Sunday double-header.
Ex-KKR captain Rana brought up his third IPL half-century in just 22 balls and not only helped RR recover from the early jolt, it had them eyeing a score in the range of 200-220 – although their final score of 182 proved more than enough for Riyan Parag’s men.
Archer roars back in style
England speedster Jofra Archer had experienced one of the lowest moments of his career so far when he was smashed all over the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium during RR’s opening game of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Barbadian-born express pacer became the most expensive bowler in IPL history as he went wicketless for 76 runs in four overs, and many on social media felt his career at the highest level was perhaps “finished” after the horror show last Sunday. And against KKR on Wednesday, he conceded 33 runs inside three overs, once again going wicketless.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOne can gauge what the 29-year-old must have been going through mentally this past week by his emphatic celebrations after getting in-form opener Rachin Ravindra caught-behind in the first over of CSK’s chase. To say that he was excited or pumped up would be a bit of an understatement – it was the kind of celebration that one would expect from a bowler after taking the winning wicket in a World Cup final, or something similar.
Flying Royals change to the course of the game with their fielding
Archer gave Royals the ideal start in their defence of the 182-run total with his early strike and economical spell while Wanindu Hasaranga ensured the Super Kings never got to rebuild from the shaky start despite skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 63 off 44 balls as he finished with superb figures of 4/35.
Hasaranga and the rest of the RR bowlers, however, would have found it a lot tougher to defend the total had it not been for their exceptional fielding on Sunday. Shimron Hetmyer was personally responsible for a couple of those catches, including one in the final over that prevented MS Dhoni from pulling off another of his magical finishes. RR skipper Parag, meanwhile, dove to his right to complete a one-handed catch and remove Dube.
It wasn’t just the Rajasthan fielders though who were exceptional on Sunday, as Vijay Shankar and Matheesha Pathirana had also pulled off a couple of stunners earlier in the evening.
No more No 9 for MSD
Dhoni faced a barrage of criticism despite scoring an unbeaten 30 off 16 balls in CSK’s 50-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chepauk. And that was because of the decision to send R Ashwin ahead of him at a time when the game was fast slipping out of the Super Kings’ grasp, with Dhoni eventually walking out to bat at No 9. And it wasn’t until the last couple of overs, at which point RCB had virtually confirmed their second consecutive victory, that he finally began to swing his blade.
‘Thala’ appears to have taken serious note of the criticism, from experts including his former teammates to fans alike, as he walked out to bat after the fall of the fifth wicket in Sunday’s clash. Dhoni has been batting primarily at No 8 since 2023 due to a dodgy knee, and No 7 might have felt like something of a promotion.
That wasn’t all though; Dhoni briefly revived CSK’s hopes of pulling off a late heist by smashing Tushar Deshpande for a six straight down the ground in the penultimate over, with Ravindra Jadeja following suit in the final ball of the over. And ‘Captain Cool’ was on strike with CSK were left needing 20 from the final over as fans waited with bated breath to see if Dhoni could conjure up another miracle.
Skipper’s Parag’s decision to hand Sandeep Sharma, and not Archer, the final over turned out to be a master stroke as the Punjab seamer not only dismissed Dhoni in the first legal delivery of the 20th over after starting with a wide, he held his nerve after getting struck for a maximum by Jamie Overton to guide his team to their first win of the season.