Chennai, Mar 28 (UNI) Ending its 17-year-old jinx by taming the lions at its own den, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) thrashed five time winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by a
thumping 50 run margin, in the IPL match at the Chepauk stadium here on Friday night.
Chasing a competitive 197 target, none of the home team batters rose to the occasion as
they lost wickets at regular intervals and caved in meekly without a semblance of fight as
CSK finished at 146 for eight, losing by a margin of 50 runs and handing RCB only its
second win since 2008 at the M A Chidambaram Stadium.
The chase was done and dusted in the power play itself as CSK lost two wickets in first
over and another one in the fifth ending any hopes of a miraculous chase.
With their second successive win RCB emerged on top of the leaderboard with four points,
while CSK slid to the seventh spot, though the tournament was only in early stages and the
equations will definitely change.
It was top quality bowling stuff by RCB pacers and spinners, who maintained a nagging line
and length and never allowed the CSK batters to dominate as runs and boundaries were at
a premium.
It was a top notch collective bowling effort by RCB as none of the CSK batsmen could force
the pace and lost tamely as the run rate kept climbing up alarmingly, putting the chase beyond
the reach as CSK suffered their biggest defeat at home, though a mode CSK skipper Ruturaj
Gaikwad said it was not so and attributed dropped catches to the loss as the team felt 170
could be a par score on this wicket, which surprisingly turned out to be a sticky one.
Except, in form south paw and opener Rachin Ravindra (41, 31 balls, 5x4) none of the batsmen
rose to the occasion as the home team kept losing wickets.
For RCB, Josh Hazlewood claimed three wickets, including two in the first over, while another medium pacer Yash Dayal and impact bowler and spinner Suyash Sharma claimed two wickets apiece.
The twin strike in the first over by Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood who used the short balls to telling effect and claimed the wickets of both the openers Rahul Tripathi and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad,
who were beaten by the extra bounce, pushed CSK on the backfoot.
Another pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar chipped in finding the edge of Deepak Hooda in the fifth over, with a hint of lateral movement, further dented CSK's chase.
With the exit of Sam Curran, Rachin, who curbed his natural instincts and tried to keep the team in the hunt top scored with 41 runs along with impact player another left hander Shivam Dube (19, 15 balls, 2x4, 1x6).
However, their exit in the same over bowled by Yash Dayal, both played on, ended all the hopes.
Ravindra Jadeja (25, 19 balls, 2x4, 1x6) and M S Dhoni (30 not out, 16 balls, x4, 2x6), managed to
hit a couple of boundaries and entertained the packed Yellow brigade in a losing cause, as RCB
emerged a deserving winner after a gap of 17 years, ever since defeating CSK wayback in 2008 in the first edition.
Earlier, RCB after an initial flourish by Phil Salt (32,16 balls,23 balls, 5x4, 1x6) and other top order batsmen got starts, but failed to build them before skipper Rajat Patidar, who was later adjudged
Player of the Match, came up with a fighting half century (51, 32 balls, 4x4, 3x6) and the final thrust by Tim David in the last over of Sam Curran in which he hammered three sixers helped RCB reach 196 for 7, which in the end proved too tall a target to climb.
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