May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

JAIPUR, May 4: Sohail Tanvir returned the best-ever figures in Twenty20 cricket as Rajasthan Royals whipped Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Sunday to record their fifth consecutive win and go atop the Indian Premier League (IPL) points table.

The 23-year-old left-arm seamer, who made his international debut for Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa last year and subsequently appeared in both Tests and ODIs, grabbed 6-14 to bring Super Kings hurtling down after the visiting side had elected to bat.

Sohail, who bowls with an odd action that makes him seem bowling off the wrong foot, managed appreciable movement with both the new ball and the old as Super Kings were bowled out for just 109. Rajasthan Royals got to the target with 5.2 overs to spare.

Super Kings, who had won their opening four games before being beaten by Delhi Daredevils, were always on the back-foot as Sohail struck with the first ball of the match and finished with three scalps in his first two overs, all of them left-handers. He trapped openers Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming leg-before to deliveries that moved in sharply to rap the pads. Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan was caught in the slips off Sohail as Chennai slipped to 11-3 in the third over.

The Pakistani seamer then came back to dismiss Albie Morkel, who fought a lone battle in his 33-ball knock 42, Muttiah Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini towards the end, all three clean bowled.

Sohail, who conceded just two runs in his opening two overs, was taken off but his new-ball partner Shane Watson added to Chennai Super Kings’ woes by sending down a short one that S. Badrinath tried to pull but only gave a simple return catch.

Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne then dismissed his counterpart, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with a well-spun delivery that was edged to slip as Super Kings were reduced to 44-5 and a fighting score looked only a remote possibility.

Warne once went for 17 runs in an over, on the first ball of which Suresh Raina was dropped by Yusuf Pathan at long-on, but there were quite a few more catches to follow, which were taken gleefully in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. There was to be no notable performance down the order and the target was always going to be an easy one.

The chase never went off course, South African skipper Graeme Smith making the most of an early let off by Joginder Sharma off Ntini. The left-hander scored an unbeaten 35 off 44 deliveries with the help of some well-timed pulls and cuts, adding 78 with Swapnil Asnodkar (32) for the first wicket.

Both teams, with four wins in five matches before this outing, went in unchanged.

Summarised scores:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS 109 in 19 overs (Albie Morkel 42, Suresh Raina 27; Sohail Tanvir 6-14, Munaf Patel 2-16); RAJASTHAN ROYALS 110-2 in 14.2 overs (Graeme Smith 35 not out, Swapnil Asnodkar 32).—Agencies