The reigning IPL champions, Chennai Super Kings, again showed their supremacy in an emphatic 63-run victory over the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday.
Earlier, a brutal assault by Mahendra Singh Dhoni after Mural Vijay laid the platform with a brisk fifty helped Chennai Super Kings post a formidable 196 for three.
Apart from Vijay's 40-ball 53, Michael Hussey (46 of 30) and Suresh Raina (43 off 27), too, impressed with their innovative strokeplay, before Dhoni sent the opposition bowlers into a leatherhunt.
During his 19-ball stay at the wicket that produced 41 runs, the Chennai skipper smashed three sixes and as many fours.
Sent into bat after the coin landed in favour of Rajasthan skipper Shane Warne, Hussey kicked off the Chennai innings with a swept boundary in the very first ball of the match at the Sawai Mansingh stadium.
Both Hussey and Vijay found the ropes with alarming regularity as Chennai crossed the 50-run mark in the sixth over.
In stark contrast to their last match, against Kolkata Knight Riders, when they could not score a four till the 10th over, the defending champions got a boundary each till Johan Botha broke the trend, bowling a tight eighth over.
Normal service resumed the following over as Hussey lofted Warne over midwicket for a boundary, before Botha came back to dislodge the prolific Australia's leg stump with faster delivery.
After Hussey's departure, Vijay took it upon himself to dominate the opposition attack and take his team to a position of strength.
The Chennai lad did that to perfection, never allowing the bowlers to settle into any sort of rhythm.
After he sent Warne soaring over long-on for a massive six, Vijay danced down the wicket against Botha, and the result was the same.
A well-deserved half-century was reached in style when he pulled Siddharth Trivedi for the maximum.
In between Suresh Raina, too, chipped with some handy boundaries, including a couple against Warne, as Chennai inched towards a formidable total.
Rajasthan heaved a sigh of relief when a direct throw form Botha caught Vijay short of crease at the bowler's end. Vijay was livid with himself as he clearly looked like getting a few more to his name.
If the run rate was good during the Vijay-Raina association, it zoomed to another level with arrival of Dhoni, who treated the bowlers with disdain during his brief stay at the crease.
Watson was sent packing straight down the ground, Trivedi's length ball landed on one of the roofs of the first tier, as the home team's bowlers ran for cover.
