Pacers Akash Madhwal and Yudhvir Singh Charak took three wickets each, while young Vaibhav Suryavanshi stole the show with a stunning 57 as Rajasthan Royals signed off from the IPL 2025 on a high with a dominating six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
This result verifies that CSK will end up at the bottom of the IPL 2025 points table, unless they somehow beat table-toppers Gujarat Titans by a considerable margin in Sunday's final game.
On a batting-friendly pitch, Madhwal and Charak led a masterful bowling performance by RR, keeping CSK to 187 for 8—a score that looked a little short of par despite important contributions of 40-plus scores from Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis.
Yudhvir, replacing Fazalhaq Farooqi, impressed in the power-play with 3-47, and Madhwal's yorkers and late reverse swing enabled him to finish with 3-29. In the chase, 14-year-old Suryavanshi delighted spectators by hitting four fours and the same number of sixes.
He got crucial support from captain Sanju Samson, who had scored 42, and Dhruv Jurel, whose untainted 31 off 12 balls guided RR home with ease with 17 balls left. The win assisted Rajasthan Royals in putting their past struggles in run chases this season behind them.
The yellow-shirted CSK fans were clearly disillusioned as Yudhvir saw off Devon Conway with a straightforward chip to mid-off and then coerced Urvil Patel into a mis-timed shot by a going-back Kwena Maphaka at mid-on. Teenager Mhatre meanwhile treated the fans with boundaries against Tushar Deshpande before Ravichandran Ashwin played stylish fours and sixes past Yudhvir.
Mhatre capitalized on a free hit by pulling Yudhvir for six and subsequently cutting him over cover for four, as 24 runs were scored off the fourth over. The introduction of Maphaka served to do little to stem the flow, as Mhatre kept battering the bowling with consecutive boundaries, with the pace of Deshpande being especially targeted in a burst of fours.
But while trying to loft Deshpande above the ground, Mhatre lost timing and was taken at long-on, bringing an end to a useful 56-run stand with Ashwin. CSK rapidly started losing wickets, with Ashwin taken lofting off Wanindu Hasaranga and Ravindra Jadeja getting out cheaply to become Yudhvir's third wicket.
Brevis amazed the Delhi crowd with four breathtaking boundaries, including a flat pull six off Riyan Parag and a bottom-handed whip six off Yudhvir. Soon, RR tightened the run flow against Brevis, and he was eventually dismissed by Madhwal. The pacer played a crucial role in managing the innings in the dying overs, claiming wickets of Dube and Dhoni in the final over as just 17 runs were possible off the last three.
RR's pursuit started when Yashasvi Jaiswal pulled a gloved four off Khaleel Ahmed, then smashed a six over the head of cover-point off Anshul Kamboj. After the ball stopped swinging, Jaiswal slashed and lofted cuts off Ahmed for three fours and a six but was dismissed for 36 after mistiming one and losing his off-stump to Kamboj.
Samson and Suryavanshi subsequently demonstrated beautiful strokes—lofts and drives of Ahmed and Kamboj—while RR finished the power-play at 56 for 1. Samson subsequently destroyed Ashwin with a six over the ground, while Suryavanshi smashed Noor Ahmad for a six and two boundaries, scoring 17 runs in the eighth over.
Suryavanshi maintained the momentum, hitting two sixes off Jadeja down long-on, and completed his fifty with a six off Ahmad. Samson, having thrashed Matheesha Pathirana with two boundaries, got trapped by the carrom ball of Ashwin and was caught at long-on.
Soon after, Ashwin struck again as Suryavanshi mistimed a hoick to backward point, falling for 57 off 33 balls. Despite Ahmad dismissing Riyan Parag with a googly, Jurel counterattacked, sweeping for four, pulling and paddling Jadeja for six and four, and clearing Ashwin for a maximum.
Shimron Hetmyer then hammered Ashwin for a six and a four, and Jurel finished the game with a six over mid-wicket off Pathirana, helping Rajasthan Royals end a disappointing IPL 2025 season in a confident manner.
Brief Scores:
Chennai Super Kings: 187/8 in 20 overs (Ayush Mhatre 43, Dewald Brevis 42; Akash Madhwal 3-29, Yudhvir Singh Charak 3-47)
Rajasthan Royals: 188/4 in 17.1 overs (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 57, Sanju Samson 41; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-41, Anshul Kamboj 1-2)
Rajasthan Royals won by six wickets
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