Nitish Rana starred with the bat and Wanindu Hasaranga sparkled with the ball as Rajasthan Royals won their first match in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season after beating the Chennai Super Kings by six runs at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati on Sunday.
Rana smashed a belligerent 81 off 36 balls, hitting 10 fours and five sixes, to help Royals put 182/6 on the board batting first. Meanwhile, Wanindu Hasaranga was CSK’s biggest tormentor with the ball as he registered figures of 4/35 to help his team to a six-run win.
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Although Rana and Hasaranga were the chief architects of the win, key contributions from Jofra Archer and Riyan Parag didn’t go unnoticed. Archer gave Rajasthan Royals a dream start with a wicket-maiden, dismissing the in-form Rachin Ravindra for a duck en route to claiming the first maiden over by any bowler in IPL 2025.
The English pacer bowled a miserly three-over opening spell inside the opening six overs, conceding just 13 runs to help keep a lid on the CSK batters.
“I was thinking towards the end of the (RR) innings that we might be 10 to 15 runs short, somewhere around 200,” Nitish Rana reflected. “But on this pitch, 180 was a solid score and credit goes to Jofra for how he bowled in the powerplay. The powerplay is super important while bowling, just like batting is crucial, so credit goes to Jofra.”
Reflecting on his own performance, Rana also explained the importance of maximising the first six overs.
"In the last game, we learned that the new ball comes onto the bat much better than the old one, so the plan was to know the pitch and figure out what the best shots were to play on it," he noted at the post-match press conference.
Rana also touched on captain Riyan Parag’s role in the win. Parag, who made 37 off 28 balls while batting and pulled off a stunning catch off Hasaranga’s bowling to help get rid off power-hitter Shivam Dube in the 10th over.
At the stage, CSK were 72/2, needing another 111 runs from 64 balls with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad settled at the other end and Dube starting to flourish, having already struck two sixes.
“I feel that Riyan’s catch at covers (to dismiss Dube). I think that was an important turning point in the match,” Rana said.
Sunday’s win was Rajasthan Royals’ first in IPL 2025. They will face Punjab Kings in their next IPL 2025 match at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
