The Royal whip for the Super Kings!

The 4th match of IPL 2020 took place between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings in Sharjah, the place known for the famous desert storm knock from the Master Blaster. The Rajasthan Royals registered their first win with a 16 run victory over the men in yellow. The entire sufferings that the No.7 and his men endured at the hands of RR today can be described in the following 7 points. 1) The Samson Show Before today’s match, Samson averaged only around 11 in 7 innings against CSK. The batsman from God’s own country changed those numbers today with a splendid knock. It was only book cricket with 4s and 6s from him, smacking the balls to all corners of the ground. Creating a carnage, he brought a quickfire 50 in 19 balls, finishing on 74. 2) Sensible Smith With Samson going all guns blazing at one end, Smith batted sensibly and kept on rotating the strike ticking the scoreboard all along. The skipper too hit a few lusty blows and played an anchor sheet guiding the team to a dominant total promoting him as an opener in the absence of Jos Butler. He employed his bowlers efficiently picking up wickets at regular intervals and slowing down the scoring rate of the opposition. 3) Spinners to cleaners With spinners always being the go-to-bowlers for Dhoni, it was not the case today as Chawla and Jadeja were awful in their lines and lengths. They could not handle the heat of the RR batsmen and Sharjah weather as well. At one point in time, the sweating on their bodies was more than that of the amount of dew on the ground. 4) Charming Curran The only spotlight with the ball for CSK was Sam Curran. Even though he leaked runs at the start, he came back well picking up 3 wickets with his variations and slowed down the tempo of the RR batting. He also played a small cameo with bat staking claim for a spot in the playing XI even after the arrival of Bravo. 5) Gifting free hits The no-balls from the CSK bowlers did not help the team cause as they were already leaking runs. The extra balls they bowled and the runs from them made the difference in the end as the team ended up on the losing side even after reaching 200. 6) Split personality Faf The entire innings of Du Plessis can be divided into two phases. In the first phase, he scored 17 runs off 18 balls with no boundaries. In the second phase, he scored 55 runs in the next 19 balls that he faced which included 7 sixes and a boundary. That speaks about the hitting prowess of the man and the conditions on offer in the Sharjah Cricket Ground. 7) The Man himself Nothing went right for Dhoni tonight after the toss. The bowling changes did not work, and he missed opting for a DRS for Smith off Jadeja bowling which proved to be costly. He was not able to time the ball initially and cleared the boundaries only in the last over when the game was already over by then. Coming at No.7 to bat, he admitted to experimenting with the batting order as it is still early days in the tournament. The brilliant spell from the leg spinners of RR and Watson’s cameo at the top are other noteworthy happenings in tonight’s match. In the absence of Butler, it was an achievement for RR to post a mammoth total on the board and registering a win against CSK. On other hand, Dhoni has to find the right combination amid the injury concerns to his major players and get back to his strengths to regain the momentum lost today. About the Author The post is written by Aravind. Aravind is a graduate from IIM Visakhapatnam and an avid cricket enthusiast. He follows the game with great passion. More than mere watching, he likes to analyze the game deeply and write blogs