IPL 2025: Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets

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.

Earlier in the innings, pacers Akash Madhwal and Yudhvir Singh Charak picked three-fers each to help Rajasthan Royals (RR) restrict Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to 187/8 in their 20 overs.

While Yudhvir, coming in for Fazalhaq Farooqi, rocked in the power-play to pick 3-47, Madhwal nailed yorkers at will and used some reverse swing at the back end to end with 3-29. After giving away only 17 runs in last three overs, RR will need to chase down 188 to avoid finishing at the bottom of the points table.

For CSK, Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis hit 43 and 42 respectively, as they posted a competitive total after being reduced to 78/5 in 7.4 overs. The majorly yellow jersey wearing crowd were dejected early on when Devon Conway chipped to mid-off off Yudhvir, while Kwena Maphaka timed his back-pedal from mid-on to perfection to take Urvil Patel’s catch, giving the pacer his second wicket of the over.

The teenaged Mhatre delighted CSK-supporting fans by pulling and lofting Tushar Deshpande for a brace of boundaries, before Ravichandran Ashwin glanced and then flicked Yudhvir beautifully off the front foot for four and six respectively. Mhatre capitalised on the free hit by backing away to pull Yudhvir for six, before slashing him through cover for four, as 24 runs came off fourth over.

The introduction of Maphaka didn’t change matters as Mhatre slashed and lofted him for a brace of boundaries. He took a liking to Deshpande’s pace by swiping, pulling and upper-cutting him for a hat-trick of fours. But in a bid to hit Deshpande down the ground, Mhatre didn’t time the loft and was caught by diving long-on, as his 56-run stand with Ashwin came to an end.

CSK again lost wickets in quick succession as Ashwin lofted to deep mid-wicket off Wanindu Hasaranga, while Ravindra Jadeja flicked uppishly to short mid-wicket and become Yudhvir’s third scalp. Brevis wowed the Delhi crowd via four jaw-dropping boundaries – with his flat pulled six off Riyan Parag and lofting Yudhvir for a maximum with a bottom-handed whip being the standouts.

RR eventually dried the runs towards Brevis, and that resulted in him losing his off-stump to Madhwal. With Shivam Dube hammering four boundaries, including two sixes off Hasaranga, and crowd favourite MS Dhoni hammering a six down the ground off the leg-spinner, CSK managed to touch 180. But RR squeezed the run flow from 18th over – resulting in Dube and Dhoni falling to Madhwal in the final over – as 17 runs came off the last three overs.

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