Rajasthan win comfortably, stay afloat; Chennai pushed to brink

Abu Dhabi, Oct 19 : Former champions Rajasthan Royals (RR) gave themselves a new lease of life on Monday with a convincing seven-wicket win over three-time winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK), a result that lifted them from the bottom of the Indian Premier League (IPL) points table to the fifth spot.
Before the game started on Monday, RR were lying at the bottom of the eight-team points table. After they won with 2.3 overs to spare, thanks to Jos Buttler’s 48-ball 70 not out, they climbed to the fifth spot with eight points from 10 matches. Steve Smith’s team is very much in the race to qualify for the playoffs.
The top four teams qualify for the playoffs after each team has played 14 matches each in the league phase.
CSK, on the other hand, have looked completely off-colour this season and the defeat at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium has pushed them to the bottom of the points table. CSK will now have to win all their remaining four matches and pray to qualify for the playoffs.
Chasing CSK’s 125/5, RR finished at 126/3 in 17.3 overs.
Smith remained unbeaten (26 off 34 balls) while speedster Jofra Archer bowled a miserly spell of four overs, picking up the wicket of in-form Faf du Plessis and conceding just 20 runs.