IPL: Chennai Wins Against Rajasthan; Eye Knockout Spot

Down in the dumps, on their way out of the tournament, a chase seemingly out of reach - that is when the Chennai Super Kings play their best cricket. They have been doing in for years now, and have started doing it again. Albie Morkel was their Man Friday yet again, as he and Anirudha Srikkanth pulled their team out of the rubble against Rajasthan Royals.

The Royals had a slow start to their innings as Hilfenhaus strangled the batting line-up. The top trio of Rahane, Dravid and Watson struggled to get the ball off the square as the score reached 40 for 3 in 8.4 overs. Stuart Binny and Brad Hodge seemed to be taking the score to challenging proportions, but a slow innings from Botha derailed their plans. RR could score just 126 on the difficult wicket.

Chennai had Faf Du Plessis sitting out due to an injury, and Mr. Cricket - Mike Hussey made his way at the top. He however looked ocmpletely out of dept and made 19 in 32 deliveries. Murali Vijay continued with his horror show when he was out for a duck. Shaun Tait was especially difficult to face, managing to get the ball to zip on a slow wicket. Raina hit a few lusty hits but could not last too long to make a difference. Bravo, Dhoni and Jadeja too laboured away as their team needed 43 in 22 balls. In came Albie Morkel, and out came the big hits. He hit a six and four off the first two deliveries that he faced from Pankaj Singh and then hit another one off Watson in the next over. Any thoughts that the scoring might suffer when he was not on strike was put to rest when Anirudh Srikkanth got into the act. The latter took over from Morkel and dispatched Watson and Tait for humongous sixes, as CSK won the match with 11 balls to spare.

The win breathes new impetus into the CSK campaign, while the Royals look to be on their way out.