Subramaniam Badrinath paid tribute to Matthew Hayden after the pair's 89-run partnership helped Chennai beat Rajasthan.

Badrinath cracked an unbeaten 59 and Hayden hit 48 as Chennai reached their target of 141 for the loss of just three wickets to go top of the Indian Premier League table.

"This innings owes a lot to him," Badrinath told Setanta Sports 2. "He helped me out quite a bit. He's played a lot with Warney (Rajasthan captain Shane Warne ) so he really helped me out."

Hayden still believes there is room for improvement, claiming Chennai's fielding and catching needs to get better.

"We've got a bit of momentum," he said. "We still need to field better. A couple more dropped catches could have been costly. But we are winning."

Opting to bat

Muttiah Muralitharan did much of the damage with the ball for Chennai, taking two wickets for just 22 in his four overs as Rajasthan reached 140 for seven after winning the toss and opting to bat.

The Royals took two early wickets to dismiss Murali Vijay for 10 and Suresh Raina for 13, but Badrinath and Hayden guided Chennai to victory.

Warne admitted Badrinath's innings had taken the game away from his side.

"We got off to good start with some wickets early," he said. "(But) Chennai showed their class. It took one guy to bat all the way through, to control the innings and well done to him."