Poor shot selection from most of the Chennai Super Kings batsmen, alongside timely wickets from quicks Yudhvir Singh and Akash Madhwal, first gave Rajasthan Royals the upper hand. Then, teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi (57 off 33 balls) churned out another superb knock as the Royals finished their IPL 2025 campaign
with an easy six-wicket win over the Super Kings at the Kotla on Tuesday.
Captain Sanju Samson (41 off 31 balls) gave Suryavanshi good support in a 98-run stand in less than 10 overs for the second wicket, which was key to the Royals reaching the target with 17 balls to spare.
The 14-year-old had a quiet start, with his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal doing most of the scoring early on. But contrary to his approach, Suryavanshi showed a fair amount of maturity and played with a lot more responsibility on this occasion, instead of trying to hit almost every ball.
The left-hander’s innings comprised four maximums and as many boundaries. Though Samson and he fell in the same over, the Royals felt no pressure, thanks to the run-rate maintained by Suryavanshi and their skipper.
Crucial spell
Put into bat, CSK made a decent recovery, courtesy Dewald Brevis and Shivam Dube (39 off 32 balls), after losing half their side for 78 in the eighth over.
Their run-rate wasn’t a concern, thanks to opener Ayush Mhatre’s 20-ball 43.
But Madhwal, coming late into the attack, turned the screws on the Super Kings with his accuracy. He first knocked over Brevis, breaking the 50-plus partnership with Dube.
Conceding just two boundaries in his spell, Madhwal dismissed both Dube and CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the 20th over, which were crucial to keeping the side short of even 190.