Chennai, May 12 (PTI) Pacer Simarjeet Singh dished out his best performance (3/26) in the IPL and exemplified Chennai Super Kings' discipline with the ball in restricting Rajasthan Royals to 141 for five here on Sunday.

For RR, the in-form Riyan Parag top-scored with a 35-ball unbeaten 47 on a slow wicket.

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It all started with CSK losing their 11th toss of the season, the most for the team in a single edition.

Opting to bat, the RR openers were off to a cautious start against Tushar Deshpande and Maheesh Theekshana, and the first boundary only arrived in the third over.

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Only six boundaries, including a maximum by Yashasvi Jaiswal, came in the powerplay, indicating that the track might not be best suited for power-hitting, with the ball sticking to the surface.

After RR ended the powerplay at 42 for no loss, the 26-year-old Simarjeet made the first breakthrough in the seventh over, getting rid of Jaiswal (24 runs off 21 balls).

With the threat of Jaiswal being neutralised, spinner Ravindra Jadeja was pressed into action in the following over.

However, it was Simarjeet who came up with the second breakthrough in the ninth over, with Jos Buttler (21 off 25 balls) departing while looking to clear the deep fine-leg.

As the score read 49 for two, Parag joined skipper Sanju Samson (15 off 19 balls) and got a reprieve in the 12th over, after Theekshana dropped him while he was on 15.

Meanwhile, Samson failed to get going and it was Simarjeet again who grabbed the prized wicket of the RR skipper, ending his 42-run partnership with Parag.

Having reached 103 for three at the end of the 16th over, Parag and Dhruv Jurel (28 off 18 balls) decided to free their arms, even as the pitch was only getting slower.

Simarjeet, Deshpande and Shardul Thakur were handed the duties in the final four overs, and as Parag was handed another lifeline in the penultimate over, with Sameer Rizvi dropping him off Thakur while he was on 36.

Deshpande, bowling the final over, got rid of Jurel and Shubham Dubey (0 off 1 ball) in consecutive deliveries.

Eventually, the visitors didn't get a big enough total on the board.

For CSK, Simarjeet was the star with the ball, while Jadeja was the most economical of all.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)