Rajasthan Royals beat the Chennai Super Kings by 32 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in match number 37 of IPL 2023 on Thursday. While RR captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first, the team proved his decision to be the correct one as thet posted a record total at this venue, scoring 202/5, surpassing the previous best of 197.

Yashasvi Jaiswal was the leading run-getter for Rajasthan in this match as he posted 77 off 43 balls and helped the home team off to a superb start along with Jos Buttler at the other end. Even though Chennai did comeback in the middle overs, the finishing touches provided by Dhruv Jurel (34 off 15) and Devdutt Padikkal (27 off 13) were enough to propel RR past 200.

In the run chase, Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 47 off 29 but the other in-form top-order batters struggled. Devon Conway made 8 off 16 balls, and Ajinkya Rahane scored 15 off 13 deliveries. Middle-order batter Ambati Rayudu also couldn't score big and departed for a 2-ball duck.

However, innings from Shivam Dube (52 off 33), Moeen Ali (23 off 12) and Ravindra Jadeja (23* off 15) kept CSK in the game before they left themselves too much to do with 37 needed to win from 7 balls. RR's spinners proved to be the difference in the second innings with Adam Zampa, coming in for Trent Boult who had a niggle, returning with figures of 3 for 22.

Ravichandran Ashwin was also impressive, picking 2 wickets in a single over and finished with figures of 2 for 35. Kuldip Yadav (1/18) was the other wicket taker for RR. The win has taken the Royals to the top of the points table with 10 points from 8 matches and a better net run rate than the two other teams with 10 points- CSK and Gujarat Titans.

Meanwhile, this was the eighth successive match in which the team batting first has held on to a win, a trend which seems to be changing than than earlier matches where the teams chasing were winning more games. In addition, this fixture was also the seveth back to back match in IPL 2023 where the side that scored more in the powerplay ended up winning the contest.