IPL 2018: Match 17, CSK vs RR - Who Said What

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) put in one of their most comprehensive performances against Rajasthan Royals in their new adopted home on Friday. They walked away with a massive win of 64 runs over their opponents who had the advantage of winning the toss. But the champions don’t need second invitation to come to the party as Shane Watson enjoyed the situation. There was no pressure on him whatsoever of the required run-rate and in the end was the hero of the day with a magnificent century.

After losing the toss it was clear that the Men in Yellow had to go hard upfront to put up a decent total on the board. Watson was the right man for them at this stage who just went bang bang from the word go and caught the bowlers off guard. he didn’t spare any of the bowlers who came in front of him and just whacked them all around the park. In the process, he scored the second century of this season and even bettered the strike rate of Chris Gayle who was on song the other day.

Even Suresh Raina looked in scintillating touch with the bat coming back after an injury lay-off and helped CSK post a total of 204 runs for the loss of 5 wickets after 20 overs.

The chase never went according to the plan for Royals as their move to promote Heinrich Klaasen to the top failed miserably. The bowlers of the home side managed to keep them at bay in the powerplay over where the match effectively ended. Though there was an effort put in by Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes they were left to do a little too much by the top order. The latter stroked an enterprising 45 but the target was too much for their liking as CSK bowlers were too good for them and lost the game by 64 runs.

Man of the Match, Shane Watson said:

There’s no doubt I had extra motivation tonight (against his former team). Nice to put in the performance that I did tonight. Grateful for the opportunity I’ve had for CSK. Glad to repay them tonight. Not sure, just one of those things that happened in the first couple of overs (about the dropped catches).

Don’t mean to drop them, but that’s the way it goes. It went my way tonight, got to make the most of it. When you feel like you’re not learning, it’s time to stop. I’m still working on certain aspects of the game. MS and Fleming know how to set up a really good team dynamic.

Fortunate to be a part of CSK and to contribute to the win tonight. Chris (Gayle) is the greatest T20 batsman in the world. To be able to score so many T20 hundreds. That’s the reason he’s called the Universe Boss. He keeps bossing attacks around the world.

Chennai Super Kings captain, MS Dhoni said:

Big game for us, we lost the last one. It’s like an unknown territory for us. CSK is used to being slightly behind, before getting into the groove. This year has been different. Everyone has contributed. Have to keep the fitness levels up, most of us are over 30.

It’s a long-ish tournament, have to be fit. Experience really counts. No point getting injured when you’re trying to stop a single or a double. The kind of players we’ve got, they’ll always make that up. We’ve got a few good fielders who are very good.

They are doing most of the work when it comes to the boundary fielding. Just want to keep the players fit. Change of venue – to be frank – CSK wasn’t there for couple of years. I played for Pune at that point of time. The fans over here, they supported the team and stood by me.

It’s time to return the favour. They have the choice whether to support CSK or the other team. By the end of the seventh game, we’ll see a lot more yellow in the crowd. It’s Chennai Super Kings, not Pune Super Kings.

As far as the wicket is concerned, I’m not sure that it was coming on nicely, especially when the ball got old. There was spongy bounce. Back of length was hard to hit. Batsmen did the job, they put on more than what was required on the board. Made the bowlers’ life easy.

Spinners had to vary their line and lengths along with the pace. It’s a league stage, it’s not like the quarters or semis, where if you lose you’re out, so there’s not that much pressure. For CSK whenever we played in Chennai, we used to bat first a lot of times in Chennai.

Dew is a factor here. Today also there was a bit of dew later on. I saw the fielders wiping the ball and everything. Slowly what has happened is that people are getting comfortable either way. If wicket is good, not many teams will mind batting first or second.

Rajasthan Royals captain, Ajinkya Rahane said:

Credit goes to CSK the way they played, especially Watson at the top of the order. Unfortunately, we dropped that catch. But, the way he played was incredible. If you field well and take the catches, it’ll help. Our players are working hard on fielding.

We need to work hard and move forward. We bowled slightly on the poor side. They bowled straighter lines and lengths. It was difficult to hit. CSK were too good tonight.

It’s important to believe in our ability. We just need to go out there, try to improve and be positive. His (Watson) intent was completely different. He was positive from ball one.