CSK vs RR, IPL 2023 Match 17 Stats Review: Jos Buttler's heroics, Rajasthan Royals' feat and other stats

A steady half-century from Jos Buttler followed by brilliant bowling display from spin-trio of R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa saw Rajasthan Royals defeating Chennai Super Kings by three runs in match number 17 of Indian Premier League 2023.

MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to field first at the famous MA Chidambaram Stadium. Yashasvi Jaiswal fell early in the second over to Tushar Deshpande as Devdutt Padikkal was promoted up the order to tackle the Chennai bowling. He did not disappoint his captain as he smacked a quick-fire 26-ball 38 that included five boundaries.

Padikkal and Buttler added 77 runs for the second wicket before Ravindra Jadeja broke the partnership, striking twice in three balls in the ninth over to dismiss Padikkal and Sanju Samson. The ploy to send Ashwin ahead of Shimron Hetmyer worked for RR as the duo of Ashwin and Buttler kept the scoring going by adding 47 valuable runs for the fourth wicket. Ashwin struck two back-to-back sixes against Akash Singh in the 15^th over and raised to 30 from 22 balls, but Singh had the last laugh as he picked Ashwin's wicket.

However, Buttler played an anchor role at one end and got his 18^th half-century. But when he started to shift gears, Moeen Ali, who had a rare bad day on the field, cleaned him up with a classical off-break, leaving RR in trouble at 142/5 in the 17^th over. An 18-ball 30 from Hetmyer lower down the order helped RR post a defendable total of 175/8 in 20 overs. For CSK, Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers for his spell of 2/21 in his four overs.

Chasing 176, CSK lost in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad early courtesy of Sandeep Sharma. However, Ajinkya Rahane and Devon Conway kept the chase going as the duo added 68 for the second wicket. Rahane smashed a quick-fire 19-ball 31 that included three boundaries. However, Ashwin broke the partnership by trapping Rahane in front and also sent Shivam Dube packing with a peach of a delivery.

Soon, Chahal and Zampa joined the party as the spin-trio rattled Chennai’s middle-order, as they collapsed from 78/1 to 113/6. MS Dhoni along with Jadeja kept the chase alive as the duo added 59 runs in five overs. Jason Holder was taken to the cleaners, leaking 19 runs in the penultimate over courtesy of sublime hitting from Jadeja. With 21 runs to get in the last over, Sandeep Sharma held his nerve to help RR edge over CSK by three runs after being hit for two sixes from Dhoni.

Meanwhile, let us look at the stats and numbers from the game Match no. 17 of Indian Premier League 2023 between CSK and RR:

200 - MS Dhoni completed 200 games as captain for CSK in IPL.

8 - Sanju Samson got dismissed for duck. He holds the record for most ducks by a RR player in IPL, surpassing Shane Watson and Stuart Binny (both 7).

85 -Jos Buttler completed 3000 IPL runs in 85 innings, becoming the third-fastest to achieve the feat. Chris Gayle tops the list (75 innings) followed by KL Rahul (80 innings).

2 - Rajasthan Royals registered their second win at MA Chidambaram Stadium.

5 - R Ashwin dismissed Ajinkya Rahane for the fifth time in IPL, the joint second-most dismissals for him against a batter, along with Chris Gayle. Ashwin has dismissed Robin Uthappa seven times.

22 - Jos Buttler registered his 22nd fifty-plus score for RR in T20s, the second-most fifty-plus scores by an RR batter. Ajinkya Rahane tops the list with 23 such scores.

3 - RR defeated CSK by three runs, the joint second-smallest victory for RR in IPL in terms of runs. The smallest victory in terms of runs for RR was by two runs against MI in 2009, Deccan Chargers in 2010 and PBKS in 2020.

2 - Ashwin was adjudged Player of the Match for second consecutive time against CSK.