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Young Ayush Mhatre once again reminded everyone that he is one for the future with a 20-ball 43 that helped Chennai Super Kings huff and puff to a modest 187 for eight against Rajasthan Royals in an inconsequential IPL match here Tuesday.
MS Dhoni's team could have been in deeper trouble had Dewald Brevis (42) and Shivam Dube (39) not prevented the innings from falling apart. Dhoni himself could manage only a sedate 16 off 17, failing to provide a late flourish.
There was no end to the woes of the his team's floundering middle order.
The promising start was frittered away with Devin Conway (10), Urvil Patel (0) struggling to get going, and they had lost half the team inside eight overs.
Pacers Yudhvir Singh (3/47) and Akash Madhwal (3/29) shared six wickets between them.
Playing his fifth match of the season, Conway began with a fluent drive off Tushar Deshpande, who was mixing up his length nicely, and beat the bat of the New Zealander a number of times.
Conway did not last long, offering a simple catch to Riyan Parag at mid-off off Yudhvir Singh. He charged down the wicket but just managed to chip the good length ball.
Yudhvir struck again, sending back the talented Patel, who went for a big shot but failed to connect, and Kwena Maphaka took a sharp catch at the edge of the circle.
Mhatre moved the scoreboard by finding two boundaries off Deshpande, who was hitting the deck hard.
R Ashwin's surprise promotion to number four left the fans delighted as the spin all-rounder broke the shackles with a tremendous six on the leg side off Yudhvir. Mhatre also found consecutive boundaries as CSK milked 24 runs in that over.
The youngster continued to bat in aggressive fashion, finding a hat-trick of boundaries off Deshpande but the pacer had the last laugh.
Soon Ashwin departed and Ravindra Jadeja also could not make any impact, flicking off his legs to Dhruv Jurel, to give Yudhvir his third wicket of the match.
The run rate was not an issue, as CSK were going at close to 10 an over but half of the batters were back in the dug out well before the half-way mark.
In came Brevis and the South African churned out yet another impact knock, his 25-ball 42 preventing the CSK innings from falling apart.
Brevis' entraining knock that had three sixes and two fours was ended by Madhwal. But before that, Brevis and Shivam Dube added 59 runs for the sixth wicket to keep CSK in hunt for a 200-plus total.
The spectators were on their feet when 'Thala' Dhoni arrived at the fall of the Protea batter. The CSK skipper punished a full-length ball from Riyan Parag for a six, much to the delight of fans as the chants of 'Dhoni' 'Dhoni' reverberated across the stadium.
Runs continued to flow from Dube's bat as the tall left-hander dispatched one from Wanindu Hasaranga into the stands. However, the late push never came.
PTI
