Rajasthan Royals’ pace of scoring against Chennai Super Kings has left Saba Karim amazed, with the former India selector saying on Sunday that “It was unbelievable”.
Despite CSK opener Ruturaj Gaikwad slamming a 60-ball unbeaten century with the help of five sixes and nine boundaries, and setting the Royals a massive 190-run target for victory, the Sanju Samson-led side scored the required runs with 15 balls to spare on Saturday evening.
This was the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side’s first defeat in the UAE leg and Saba Karim termed it the upset of the tournament.
“This is clearly the upset of IPL this season. They (RR) have roared back into contention now. Some great stuff from the openers. In 5.2 overs Rajasthan Royals had put up 75 runs on the board. It was unbelievable,” Karim told cricket.com on Sunday.
“They (Rajasthan Royals) were up against a strong bowling attack — they (Chennai Super Kings) had Josh Hazlewood, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja. To score these runs in such a blistering manner is very difficult to understand. This goes to show that all the teams have the surprise element up their sleeves.
“It depends when they want to play their best game. Today was such a day for RR. Look at Shivam Dube. He played his first game today, he was sitting out. He carried on the momentum from the openers,” he added.
