Young Vaibhav Suryavanshi top-scored with a delightful 57 as Rajasthan Royals signed off from IPL 2025 with a six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
The result also means that CSK will now finish IPL 2025 at the bottom of the points table, unless they beat table-toppers Gujarat Titans by a big margin on Sunday. After pacers Akash Madhwal and Yudhvir Singh Charak picked three-fers each to help RR restrict CSK to 187/8, Suryavanshi delighted everyone with his four boundaries and as many sixes to help RR complete the chase with 17 balls to spare, and bury their ghosts of faltering chases in the season.
Yashasvi Jaiswal began RR’s chase with a gloved four off Khaleel Ahmed, before lofting Anshul Kamboj over cover-point for six. But after the ball stopped swinging, Jaiswal took Ahmed to cleaners via his cuts and lofts fetching him three fours and a six. But Jaiswal fell for 36 when he went across the line against a good length ball from Kamboj and lost his off-stump.
Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Suryavanshi were exquisite in their loft and leaning drive off Ahmed and Kamboj respectively, as RR ended power-play at 56/1. While Samson lofted Ravichandran Ashwin for a down the ground six, Suryavanshi thumped Noor Ahmad off backfoot for six, before muscling him for two boundaries, as 17 runs came off eighth over.
There was no stopping Suryavanshi as he thwacked Ravindra Jadeja for two sixes over long-on fence, before reaching his fifty by whacking Noor for six. After Samson slammed Matheesha Pathirana for two boundaries, he was foxed by a carrom ball from Ashwin and holed out to long-on.
Four balls later, Ashwin stuck again as Suryavanshi mistimed his hoick to backward point and fall for 57 off 33 balls. Despite Ahmad’s quicker googly castling Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel swept him for four, apart from pulling and paddling Jadeja for six and four respectively, and heaving Ashwin for a maximum.
Shimron Hetmyer smacked Ashwin for a six and four, before Jurel fittingly hit the winning maximum by smacking Pathirana over mid-wicket, and sign off from IPL 2025 on a high.
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) lost to Rajasthan Royals 188/4 in 17.1 overs (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 57, Sanju Samson 41; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-41, Anshul Kamboj 1-2) by six wickets
