Rajasthan Royals are taking Chennai Super Kings in a home match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Thursday. The fixture marks Rajasthan's 200th match in the IPL. Speaking at the toss, the skipper of Men in Pink, Sanju Samson, expressed his delight on featuring in the team's landmark match.
However, he also observed that there were a significant number of fans who had turned up in Yellow, the jersey colour of their opponents on the day, rather than pink. He understood that it was because of MS Dhoni, CSK's legendary leader, but did not name him in his speech, much like his "that guy" reference at the post-match presentation in the reverse fixture at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
"It feels really great to play RR's 200th game, feels great to be playing for 10 years. Would love to see some pink here today (in Jaipur), but it's yellow and we know that the reason is (smiles)," Samson told the broadcaster at the toss.
Samson won the toss and chose to bat first in this match. They got off to a splendid start with Yashasvi Jaiswal (77 off 43) and Jos Buttler (27 off 21) adding 86 runs for the first wicket in 8 overs. They did have a bit of a wobble in the middle but finishing touches from Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal helped them post 202/5, creating a new record for the highest team total at this venue.
RR are currently at the third place on the points table with 8 points. However, they have a chance to regain the top of the table position in this game since CSK are at 10 points but RR's net run rate is already better them. Gujarat Titans, the defending champions, with 10 points are the only team between them at this moment.
Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural season of the IPL in 2008 but after that have never gone on to taste victory. They came close last year but finished as the runners up after losing to Gujarat in the final.