Sharjah - Rajasthan Royal kick-started their IPL 2020 campaign with a sensational win over Chennai Super Kings in Sharjah on Tuesday. Steve Smith's Royals beat CSK by 16 runs in a high-scoring clash. Sanju Samson, Steve Smith outclassed CSK bowlers to guide their team to a massive 216/7 in the first innings. Samson slammed 74 runs off 32 balls to light up Sharjah with 9 humongous sixes. Smith played an incredible knock of 69 runs off 47 deliveries while making a comeback to competitive cricket after a concussion break. Jofra Archer also joined the party in the last over to slam 27 runs off 8 deliveries in which he hit four back to back sixes against Lungi Ngidi.
Chasing the massive target, CSK left 16-run short, despite Faf du Plessis fabulous knock of 72 runs. The Proteas slammed seven sixes during his magnificent innings.
Rahul Tewatia was pick of the bowler from Royals camp as he took three wickets for 37 runs in four overs including a crucial one of Shane Watson, who got off to a good start and hit 33 runs.
Tewatia also got the wicket of the busy Kedar Jadhav (22), thanks to a sharp one-handed catch by wicketkeeper Samson. du Plessis then tried to milk as many runs as he could from the 'death' overs. But when he fell for 72, CSK still needed 38 off seven balls to win. That became 38 to win off the last over when Ravindra Jadeja left the very next ball unharmed.
MS Dhoni (29*) hit three consecutive sixes in the last over which helped his team reduce the margin of defeat to 16 runs.
The fans on social media went berserk as it was raining sixes on a placid Sharjah track, with shorter boundaries as compared to other IPL venus - Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Samson, Archer and Dhoni were talking points on Twitter during the game.