KIMBERLEY, South Africa (AP) - Subramaniam Badrinath hit 59 not out and Matthew Hayden added 48 to steer Chennai Super Kings to a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals and go top of the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Badrinath smashed nine boundaries and a six in 41 balls at the De Beers Diamond Oval, sharing a match-winning 89-run stand for the third wicket with Hayden (48 off 44 balls) to reach 141-3 after Rajasthan managed 140-7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan took 2-22 in four overs and left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati 2-35 to restrict Rajasthan to a score clinically chased down by Chennai.

"It’s a huge advantage," said Chennai captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni of his team’s impressive top-order batting in the series. "Basically what you need is to have one of your top-order batsman bat through and have the others contribute around him. It’s good to have them. Even the bowlers contributed. I’m happy with the performance overall."

Chennai lost its first wicket in the fourth over when Murali Vijay shuffled across and was trapped leg before by Siddharth Trivedi.

Suresh Raina added 13 runs before being dismissed in the sixth over. He was caught at point by Lee Carseldine going for the pull shot to a short-pitched Amit Singh delivery.

Hayden’s innings ended when he was stumped by wicketkeeper Naman Ojha off a wide Shane Warne delivery in the 17th over.

Badrinath then dominated an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand with Jacob Oram (1 not out) to lead Chennai home with 10 balls to spare.

"I thought we were 20 runs short with the bat," said Rajasthan captain Warne. "Having said that, it was a good fighting spirit. We fought all the way." Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 141 for 3 (Badrinath 59*, Hayden 48) beat Rajasthan Royals 140 for 7 (Muralitharan 2-22) by seven wickets.

SCOREBOARD

Rajasthan Royals

G. Smith st Dhoni b Muralitharan 30

N. Ojha b Morkel 0

S. Asnodkar lbw b Muralitharan 26

R. Jadeja c Raina b Balaji 27

Y. Pathan c Oram b Jakati 7

L. Carseldine run out 9

A. Raut st Dhoni b Jakati 7

S. Warne not out 21

S. Harwood not out 6

Extras: (lb 5, w 1, nb 1) 7

Total: (7 wickets) 140

Overs: 20.

Did not bat: A. Singh, S. Trivedi

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-54, 3-75, 4-92, 5-100, 6-104, 7-111

Bowling: Morkel 3-0-24-1 (1nb), Tyagi 2-0-12-0, Balaji 3-0-13-1, Oram 1-0-8-0, Muralitharan 4-0-22-2, Jakati 4-0-35-2 (1w), Raina 3-0-21-0

Chennai Super Kings

M. Vijay lbw b Trivedi 10

M. Hayden st Ojha b Warne 48

S. Raina c Carseldine b A. Singh 13

S. Badrinath not out 59

J. Oram not out 1

Extras: (lb 2, w 8) 10

Total: (3 wickets) 141

Overs: 18.2.

Did not bat: M.S. Dhoni, J. Morkel, S. Tyagi, S. Jakati, L. Balaji, M. Muralitharan

Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-37, 3-126

Bowling: Y. Pathan 4-0-28-0 (1w), A. Singh 3-0-25-1, Trivedi 3-0-23-1 (1w), Harwood 2-0-22-0 (1w), Warne 4-0-27-1 (3w), R. Jadeja 2.2-0-14-0

Toss: Rajasthan Royals

Player of the match: S. Badrinath (CSK)

Umpires: G. Baxter (NZ), K. Dharmasena (SL)

Third umpire: A. Saheba (Ind)