Chennai Super Kings bat vs Rajasthan Royals in vital IPL 2018 game

Chennai Super Kings chose to bat against Rajasthan Royals in a vital 2018 Indian Premier League clash at the Sawai Mansingh stadium on Friday. Ajinkya Rahane’s side will be wearing a special pink jersey to promote their special initiative ‘Cancer Out’. (Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings, IPL 2018 - highlights)

Rajasthan Royals made two changes to their side, including Ankit Sharma and handing a debut to Prashant Chopra, the dashing Himachal Pradesh batsman. Chennai Super Kings also made two changes, bringing in Sam Billings in place of Lungi Ngidi and Karn Sharma replacing Dhruv Shorey. (Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings, IPL 2018 - scorecard)

With Rajasthan Royals donning the pink jersey, some sections of the Sawai Mansingh stadium, notably the players’ lounge (gold and silver) and the President’s box were decked in yellow. Two stands, South East gate 1 and 2 had 800 seats reserved only for cancer survivors.

In the previous encounter between the two sides, Shane Watson hurt his former team Rajasthan Royals immensely with a magnificent 106 off 57 balls to give Chennai Super Kings victory by 64 runs at the MCA stadium. Coming back to the Sawai Mansingh, Watson will be hoping to repeat his performances and inflict pain on Rajasthan Royals.

A win for Chennai Super Kings will take them closer to a play-off spot while a win for Rajasthan Royals will make the fight for the last three knock-out spots even more intense.

Playing XI - Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Jos Buttler(w), Prashant Chopra, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Ankit Sharma, Jaydev Unadkat, Ish Sodhi

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Sam Billings, MS Dhoni(w/c), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur