Mike Hussey and Suresh Raina struck half-centuries to guide Chennai to an eight-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.

Batting first, veteran Rahul Dravid (66) carved an 86-run opening stand with Shane Watson (32), but Rajasthan were restricted to 147 for six thanks to two wickets each from Albie Morkel and Shadab Jakati.

Chennai lost Murali Vijay (five) early on, but Raina (61) and Hussey (79) combined for a mammoth 137 runs to ensure a Chennai win in 18.4 overs and maintain their five-match unbeaten home record.

Dravid led the Royals’ early charge - cracking nine boundaries to reach 50 in 37 balls - as he and Watson meted out special treatment to a bland Chennai spin attack.

Ironically, it was spin that brought Chennai back into the match as Watson fell to Jakati, who also got rid of Johan Botha (eight) after Ravichandran Ashwin had snapped up Ashok Menaria (two).

Dravid was eventually caught out attempting a slog off Suraj Randiv, and while Ross Taylor added 20 vital runs, Morkel dismissed him and Ajinkya Rahane (four) culminating in a Doug Bollinger final over that yielded just seven.

In reply, Raina and Hussey helped Chennai overcome the early loss of Vijay and kept them in cruise control throughout.

Both reached their half-centuries in the 13th over and made full use of the slow pitch to smash 11 boundaries between them.

Only skipper Shane Warne maintained a tight line to keep the requirement at a run a ball going into the last five overs.

Siddharth Trivedi’s bouncer had Raina caught by Johan Botha but it was for nought as Hussey hit the winning boundary to round things off.

TEAMS

Chennai: M Vijay, MEK Hussey, SK Raina, MS Dhoni (captain & WK), JA Morkel, S Badrinath, S Anirudha, R Ashwin, DE Bollinger, SB Jakati, S Randiv

Rajasthan: SR Watson, R Dravid, J Botha, AL Menaria, LRPL Taylor, AM Rahane, SK Warne (captain), ND Doshi, STR Binny, DH Yagnik (WK), SK Trivedi