Opener Ajinkya Rahane cracked a resolute half-century to anchor Rajasthan Royals to a competitive 159 for eight against Chennai Super Kings in the first semifinal of the Champions League Twenty20 here today.
Rahane blasted six fours and two sixes in his 56-ball 70-run innings and shared a 59-run partnership in 39 balls with Shane Watson (32) for the fourth wicket to lay the foundation for Rajasthan's innings.
The Mumbaikar anchored the Royals innings but the hosts could not get their partnership going and lost three wickets in the last over to settle within 160-mark.
Put into bat, Rajasthan lost their captain Rahul Dravid early once again when he was dismissed by Chris Morris in the third over.
In the next over, Kevon Cooper too was sent back to the hut when Mohit Sharma had the batsman caught by S Badrinath at extra cover to reduce the Royals to 29 for 2.
Opener Ajinkya Rahane took the onus on himself and along with Sanju Samson (11) kept the scoreboard ticking. The duo took the hosts across the 50-mark.
However, Rahane lost this third partner in the ninth over when Jason Holder induced a top edge from Samson, which went high into the air before handing safely in the hands of R Ashwin at midwicket.
Australian allrounder Shane Watson (32) then joined Rahane and the duo recovered the Rajasthan innings with the former taking the hosts across the 100-mark with a four across the midwicket fence off Bravo.
In the 14th over, Rahane brought up his third fifty in the tournament with a boundary across the short-fine leg area.
After two boundaries in the 15th over, Watson was back into the pavillion when Holder held on to a high catch which flew off a thick edge from the Australian.
Brad Hodge (11) gave company to Rahane for sometime before being dismissed by Holder, who cleaned him up with a yorker in the 19th over.
Rahane too was dismissed in the next over when he tried to a play a Bravo delivery across the leg side. Dishant Yagnik (0) and Stuart Binny (5) too were dismissed in the same over.
