Chennai Super Kings 147-3 (Faf du Plessis 73, Suresh Raina 26, Kevon Cooper 2-23) beat Rajasthan Royals 146-4 (Owais Shah 52, Ashok Menaria 36, Shadab Jakati 1-12) by 7 wickets.

Faf du Plessis led Chennai Super Kings by thrashing 73 runs as Rajasthan Royals lost a thriller by seven wickets on the last ball in the IPL 2012.

Rajasthan Royals scored 146 runs with six wickets in hand in the allocated 20 overs and Chennai Super Kings met the target by plundering 147 runs for the loss of just three wickets.

Faf du Plessis (Chennai Super Kings) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his outstanding innings of 73 from 52 balls.

The 26^th match of the Indian Premier League was played at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, on April 21, 2012. The jam packed home crowd continued their support to their team, Chennai Super Kings who were victorious in the end.

Earlier, the skipper of Rajasthan Royals, Rahul Dravid won the toss, elected to bat and opened the innings with Ajinkya Rahane. The first three overs produced 19 runs and they accumulated 15 runs in the following over with one six from Dravid and a couple of fours contributed by Rahane. The score was taken to 36 in 4.4 overs when Rahane lost his wicket for 15 as the aggressive Owais Shah replaced him and joined with Dravid.

Shah opened his shoulders with a six on the second ball of the eighth over from Shadab Jakati who removed Rahul Dravid on the last ball of the over for 26 off 28 balls with one six and three fours. Ashok Menaria was the next batsman who took guards and opened his account with a four in the ninth over as Shah kept on adding useful runs at the other end.

The acceleration started from the 15^th over which produced 22 runs as Shah got a six and one four and 10 runs were given by the bowler, Ravindra Jadeja as a result of wides. The boundaries were witnessed often and the pace of scoring was boosted up as the third wicket partnership associated 92 runs in 10.5 overs. Menaria became the next victim when he was caught by Jakati off Doug Bollinger for 36 scored from 34 deliveries with one six and two fours.

The third wicket was lost at 142 runs on the fifth ball of the 19^th over and with the addition of four runs Owais Shah was caught behind by the wicketkeeper, MS Dhoni off Nuwan Kulasekara for 52 from 43 balls with 3 towering sixes and 4 fours. Rajasthan Royals managed 146 runs for the loss of four wickets at the end of the 20^th over.

Kulasekara, Doug Bollinger, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shadab Jakati shared one wicket each.

The innings of Chennai Super Kings was opened in an authoritative manner by Subramaniam Badrinath and the man in form Faf du Plessis. The latter exhibited his brilliant stroke play by dispatching 3 fours in the second over off Stuart Binny as Badrinath collected eight runs in the next over with a four.

Faf du Plessis continued with his onslaught and the first 50 of the innings was achieved in the seventh over which was their second successive fifty runs stand in the current tournament. Badrinath was stumped on the third ball of the eighth over by the wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami off Brad Hogg for 15 runs and the first wicket was lost at 55 in 7.3 overs.

Suresh Raina joined in next with du Plessis who scored his third fifty of the IPL 2012 on the first ball of the 12^th over by stealing a single. Raina chipped in with a couple of boundaries and du Plessis kept on consolidating at the other end as the score board kept moving briskly. The hundred of the innings was attained in the 15^th over and Faf du Plessis was caught behind by Goswami off Kevon Cooper on the first ball of the 17^th over for 73 on 52 balls with 2 sixes and 6 fours.

The second wicket fell at 116 runs as Cooper struck again after two deliveries when Suresh Raina was caught by Rahane for 26 off 24 with 3 fours and the game became evenly poised. MS Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo took the responsibility of chasing the target with a  positive attitude and they gathered 13 runs in the 18^th over with two fours. Chennai Super Kings required just 16 runs to win the encounter on 12 balls which was decreased to 8 at the end of the 19^th over.

The last over of the match was bowled by Stuart Binny who delivered it excellently and the match was taken to the last ball when two runs were needed. Dhoni flicked away the last ball on the leg side and got the winning two runs as the whole home crowd erupted with joy. Chennai Super Kings smashed 147 runs with seven wickets still in hand, won the nail biting match and secured two points.

Points scored by two teams after the end of the 26^th match of the IPL 2012:

Rajasthan Royals    –      8 from 7 games.

Chennai Super Kings  –  8 from 7 games.