Guwahati, Mar 30: Nitish Rana's quickfire 81 guided Rajasthan Royals to 182/9 against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2025 clash at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Sunday.

After being put in to bat first, Rajasthan lost opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (4) on the third ball of the first over off pacer Khaleel Ahmed. Nitish came in to bat at No.3 and joined Sanju Samson in the middle. The duo made the most of the powerplay overs and scored boundaries at regular intervals.

Nitish played the role of an aggressor in the partnership and completed his first IPL half-century since 2023 in 21 balls. His blistering knock pushed Rajasthan to 79/1 after six overs.

Spinner Noor Ahmad finally provided the breakthrough as he dismissed Samson for 21 in the eighth over. Stand-in captain Riyan Parag and Nitish kept rotating the strike and added a 24-ball 38 partnership before the latter was sent back to the pavilion by Ravichandran Ashwin courtesy of MS Dhoni's stumping.

Nitish played a knock of 81 balls off 36 balls laced with 10 fours and five sixes. Dhruv Jurel and Wanindu Hasaranga failed to get going in the innings and lost their wickets to Noor Ahmad and Ravindra Jadeja respectively as Chennai bowlers took control of the game.

Riyan, from the other end, added a brief 26-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer to take their total beyond 150. Riyan's 37-run knock was put to an end by Matheesha Pathirana with an in-swinging yorker in the 18th over.

With wickets kept falling from the other end, Hetmyer (19) followed suit as Pathirana bagged his second scalp of the match.

In the last eight overs, Rajasthan only scored 53 runs and lost their last five wickets in a span of just 30 balls.

For Chennai, Khaleel, Pathirana and Noor bagged two scalps apiece to stage a comeback in the match.

Interestingly, CSK haven’t chased a 175-plus target in the IPL since their 10-wicket win over PBKS in Dubai in 2020 chasing the target of 179.

Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 182/9 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana 81, Riyan Parag 37; Noor Ahmad 2-28, Matheesha Pathirana 2-28, Khaleel Ahmed 2-38) against Chennai Super Kings.

--IANS

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