Nitish Rana, Hasaranga take RR home in close win over CSK

Mumbai: Three Sri Lankan bowlers – Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana - each supremely skilled for the format, had a good night at the Barasapara cricket stadiumin Guwahati on Sunday. But Hasaranga had the best. The Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner picked up a wicket in each of his overs. He had the last laugh against Shivam Dube (18), Vijay Shankar (9) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (63), getting each of them out immediately after being taken down for a maximum. Hasaranga’s 4-0-35-4 went a long way in helping Rajasthan Royals successfully defend 182 and score their first win of IPL 2025.

This was crowd favourites Chennai Super Kings’s second consecutive defeat despite some late heroics from MS Dhoni 16 (11b) and Ravindra Jadeja 32* (22b). CSK hadn’t been too happy with their home pitches, complaining about not being able to use spin-to-win as effectively as they usually do. The sticky Guwahati surface was more up their alley. But they had to withstand equally good spin bowlers from the opposition in Hasaranga and Theekshana. Soon, as Rahul Tripathi (23) fell to Hasaranga, Shivam Dube was sent as Impact Sub, as a corrective move after their lack of middle-overs intent in the previous match.

With a couple of sixes and a four, Dube threatened to put a spanner in the works for RR. But a blinder of a one-handed diving catch from stand-in skipper Riyan Parag at mid-off sent Dube 18 (10b) packing. Hasaranga’s consistent wicket-taking in the middle overs meant CSK’s asking rate shot up to 12-an-over for the final six overs, which proved insurmountable at the end.

When CSK began bowling, Khaleel Ahmed was their go to man. Every left-arm pacer has run in with the new ball to catch that early swing. Khaleel has usually found it. Too full to begin with, he was cracked for a four by Yashasvi Jaiswal. But Khaleel was quick to pull his length back, and it took him just two more balls, swinging back into the left-hander to have Jaiswal (4) caught at mid-off.

Rana’s fireworks

This IPL, the first after the mega auction, has been all about adjusting, finding form and slotting into new positions with new jerseys. Nitish Rana did that admirably well moving from KKR’s purple to RR’s pink. The left-hander used the depth of the crease and punished CSK pacers’ hard lengths, which they had switched to after the swing disappeared. A couple of pick-up shots behind the wicket off Jamie Overton’s short balls stood out.

He also took down CSK’s comeback man and designated Powerplay specialist R Ashwin for a 19-run over with some outstanding sweeps on one leg. A 21-ball half century for Rana saw RR racing away to 79/1 inside the Powerplay. It was the last match at their second home base, Guwahati, where they were the second-best supported team against the MS Dhoni fan base.

Ashwin, the competitor he is, had made a mental note of the early caning from Rana. The old pro almost got Rana out lbw in the third over by foiling his reverse sweep, but DRS showed the ball narrowly missing the leg-stump. Rana survived on 61. Ruturaj Gaikwad made a call to bowl out Ashwin. On song, Rana picked up a boundary down deep mid-wicket and another with a reverse sweep in Ashwin’s final over. Next ball, Ashwin saw Rana advancing early, speared one wide outside the off stump. A wide was called but Rana was beaten as another ‘stumped Dhoni bowled Ashwin’ dismissal was registered on the scoresheet. Ashwin had exacted revenge. Not just for the match; it was also the first time he got Rana in 141 deliveries bowled to him in IPL. But the off-spinner’s 4-0-46-1 was tame in comparison to Rana’s 81 (36b,10x4,5x6). Rana was the reason why RR had their noses in front at 124/3 in the 12th over.

A series of economical overs from Ravindra Jadeja and Noor Ahmed put a check on the scoring rate. RR batters could not gather any momentum in the death overs either, particularly against Pathirana (4-0-28-2), but as it turned out 182 was just about enough to win the night.