Centurion, April 30: Suresh Raina waged a lone battle for the Chennai Super Kings with his tour de force (98 off 55 balls), but it was more than enough for the Rajasthan Royals as they slumped to a 38-run defeat in their sixth IPL match here on Thursday.

Raina’s blast carried the Chennai outfit to a challenging 164/5, and in reply the beleagured Rajasthan batsmen could only muster 126 in 19.3 overs.

Power-hitter Yusuf Pathan could not recreate his exploits from Tuesday’s game against the Delhi Daredevils, falling for 20. Ravindra Jadeja and skipper Shane Warne pursued a losing battle in the final overs, only managing to cut the the difference in runs between the two totals.

Earlier, Yusuf Pathan struck with his first ball to see off the dangerous Matthew Hayden. The Australian opener in a bid to hit the ball over the short off side fence gave himself room, missed and saw his stumps being dislodged.

Parthiv Patel compounded Chennai’s early woes with a tame dismissal — hitting a Yusuf delivery straight to Kamran Khan at point. Raina, however, fought back in style, taking the attack to the Rajasthan bowlers.

Riding on his effort, the Super Kings slowly recovered. From 17/2 in the 4th over, the side managed to creep up to 84/3 in the 11th over. Dhoni too took a gamble by promoting S. Badrinath up the order and the Tamil Nadu batsman justified his captain’s faith by playing the sheet anchor’s role in a 67-run third wicket stand.

Scores: Chennai Super Kings 164/5 in 20 overs (S. Raina 98, S. Badrinath 29; Y. Pathan 2/17, M. Patel 2/25) bt Rajasthan Royals 126 in 19.3 overs (R. Jadeja 37, R. Quiney 28, L. Balaji 4/21, A. Morkel 2/21).