Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave a glimpse of the good old days of thrilling finishes but seamer Sandeep Sharma nailed a couple of perfect block-hole deliveries to earn a three-run victory for Rajasthan Royals over Chennai Super Kings in a close IPL encounter, here on Wednesday.
Chasing a target of 176, Dhoni (32 not out off 17 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (25 not out off 15 balls), veterans of many such tantalising finishes, were on course as 21 was needed off the last over. CSK's final score was 172/6 as Dhoni didn't end his 200th game for CSK in a manner he would have liked in his spiritual home with 30,000 plus spectators rooting for him.
Punjab seamer Sandeep, who played a couple of games for India eight years back, seemed to lose his nerve as he bowled a couple of wides and then Dhoni whipped him over square leg and mid-wicket for a couple of sixes.
Needing six off the last two deliveries, the medium-pacer produced a wide yorker to Jadeja and then a perfect block-hole ball to Dhoni as they fetched only a couple of singles.
However, Devon Conway had a scratchy approach on tacky pitch as his 50 off 38 balls didn't provide the momentum with Ravichandran Ashwin (2/25 in 4 overs) and YUzvendra Chahal (2/27 in 4 overs) bowling exceptionally well.
Earlier, Jos Buttler wasn't exactly devastating in his approach but yet managed the 18th half-century of his IPL career as Rajasthan Royals posted a decent 175/8 after being put in to bat.
While Royals were 135/4 after 15 overs, the last five overs wasn't as productive as they would have expected with only 40 runs being added and four wickets lost in the process.
Ravindra Jadeja (2/21 in 4 overs) was as usual menacing on a surface that assisted the spinners even as Buttler hit three huge sixes in his 36-ball-52. He had a good 77-run second wicket stand with Devdutt Padikkal (38 off 26 balls), who after his struggles against Punjab Kings, was back in his element.
Towards the end, Shimron Hetmyer (30 off 18 balls) was ever impressive as a finisher while Tushar Deshpande (2/37) gave only eight runs in the 20th over.
The CSK bowlers, especially Jadeja, managed to peg back the Royals batters after the brisk start with the 50 coming in the sixth over.
Royals did struggle between overs 8 and 13 as they lost two wickets in the space of three balls with Padikkal and skipper Sanju Samson (0) falling to Jadeja.
The delivery that got Sanju was bowled with high arm speed and it did turn enough along with sufficient bounce to force the batter play a wrong line.
After a phase in which the Royals batters did not score any boundaries for a little over six overs, Ashwin (30, 22 balls, 1x4, 2x6) smacked two successive sixes off debutant left-arm pacer Akash Singh.
Dhoni was felicitated prior to the match for captaining CSK for a 200th time in IPL by former BCCI president N Srinivasan.
