Rana, Hasaranga take RR home in victory over CSK

Three Sri Lankan bowlers — Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana — each supremely skilled for the format, had a good night at the Barasapara cricket stadium in Guwahati on Sunday.

- Rasesh Mandani

MUMBAI: But Hasaranga had the best. The Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner picked up a wicket in each of his overs. He had the last laugh against Shivam Dube (18), Vijay Shankar (9) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (63), getting each of them out immediately after being taken down for a maximum. Hasaranga's 4-0-35-4 went a long way in helping Rajasthan Royals successfully defend 182 and score their first win of IPL 2025.

This was crowd favourites Chennai Super Kings's second consecutive defeat despite some late heroics from MS Dhoni 16 (11b) and Ravindra Jadeja 32* (22b). CSK hadn't been too happy with their home pitches, complaining about not being able to use spin-to-win as effectively as they usually do. The sticky Guwahati surface was more up their alley. But they had to withstand equally good spin bowlers from the opposition in Hasaranga and Theekshana. Soon, as Rahul Tripathi (23) fell to Hasaranga, Shivam Dube was sent as Impact Sub, as a corrective move after their lack of middle-overs intent in the previous match.