25 May, 2008
Smith smashes Super Kings

Graeme Smith smashed 91 to lead Rajasthan Royals to a thrilling 11-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings.

The South Africa captain guided the visitors to 5-211 - a total which proved just beyond the battling Super Kings, who finished on 7-201, despite half centuries from Parthiv Patel and Albie Morkel, and Suresh Raina's 45.

Chennai needed 15 off the last over for victory but Sohail Tanvir dismissed Morkel for 71 and Abhinav Mukund (nought) with the last two balls of the game.

The hosts' hopes of chasing down the daunting total suffered a setback in the second over when Stephen Fleming (seven) was run out by Tanvir's direct throw, but Raina soon took charge, smashing Munaf Patel for 19 runs off the third over.

He made 45 off 24 balls before he lobbed Shane Warne to deep midwicket where Mohammad Kaif took a simple catch.

Parthiv Patel injected some spark into the run rate with a quick-fire 54 off 40 balls before he came down the track to Warne and was stumped.

Morkel maintained the momentum and reached the third-fastest IPL 50 - off 26 balls - to keep Chennai in contention but the Super Kings' chances suffered a blow when MS Dhoni was caught by Kaif at long off attempting to loft Tanvir over the boundary.

Subramaniam Badrinath (one) soon followed after skying Patel down the throat of Taruvar Kohli at cow corner and Chennai's hopes disintegrated when Tanvir removed Morkel and then Mukund with the last two balls of the game.

Earlier, Rajasthan started with a bang and hit Makhaya Ntini for 12 in the first over - six of those coming from Swapnil Asnodkar's lofted maximum over long-on off a free hit.

Asnodkar continued to rack up the runs and tormented Gony by bludgeoning him around the park, scoring boundaries at regular intervals.

At the other end Graeme Smith followed suit and raced to 50 inside nine overs, steering Morkel to third man for a quick single to bring up his eighth Twenty20 half-century.

Kamran Akmal pummelled 53 off 28 balls to maintain the imposing run-rate in the final few overs, but Yusuf Pathan (six) mistimed a Morkel delivery and toe-ended to Muralitharan at long off.

Kaif added 10 before being mis-hitting Morkel to Abhinav Mukund at third man, and Kohli was run out with the final ball of the innings.