Chennai have successfully defended a modest total at home thanks to a sluggish pitch
CSK players celebrate a Bangalore wicket. (Photo: E.K. Sanjay)
CHENNAI: Ashish Nehra was once again the wrecker-in-chief as Chennai Super Kings cruised to a 24-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL-8 here at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Monday. For the third time this season, Chennai have successfully defended a modest total at home thanks to a sluggish pitch. Nehra, the purple cap holder, weighed in with three for 19, while Dwayne Bravo picked two for 17 as Super Kings strangulated RCB for 124. Thus Chennai extended their unbeaten run at home besides moving to the top of the table with 14 points.
In pursuit of Chennai’s 148, RCB lost their talisman AB de Villiers 21 (off 14 balls) early but they overcame the jittery start (34/3) to be in control of the chase with Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik in the middle. The two had put on 63 for the fourth wicket. At one stage, the visitors were the favourites needing 52 off 37 balls with seven wickets in hand but there was a massive twist in the tale when Dwayne Bravo dismissed Kohli 48 (44b, 2x4, 1x6) with a brilliant run-out. Bravo stopped the ball off his own bowling and rattled the stumps much to the surprise of a charging Kohli whose acrobatic attempt to get back to the crease proved futile.
And in no time, Karthik 23 (20b) followed his skipper back to the pavilion, pulling a Nehra delivery straight into the hands of Dwayne Smith at deep square-leg. What followed was a flurry of activity in the RCB dugout as they lost their last seven wickets for only 27 runs before eventually being bowled out for 124.
Earlier, a half-century from Suresh Raina 52 (46b, 5x4, 1x6) and his 64-run stand with Faf du Plessis lifted Chennai Super Kings to post 148 for nine. Starc proved to be the best of the RCB attack with three for 24. David Wiese and Harshal Patel returned with two for 29 and two for 19 respectively. CSK retained the same four overseas players — Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis — for the 10th consecutive match. After electing to bat, the home team found themselves in early trouble as they lost the wicket of Smith in the first over off Starc, who brilliantly orchestrated the downfall of the West Indian with five consecutive balls outside off-stump before deceiving him with a peach of a delivery that uprooted the batsman’s off-stump.
McCullum and Raina were on the right track to mend the innings, but the second-wicket partnership was brought to a halt at 34. McCullum hit a short ball of South African pacer Wiese straight into the hands of Iqbal Abdullah.
Raina then joined hands with du Plessis and the duo played cautiously before they fell to the military-medium of Harshal. Du Plessis edged a slower delivery on to his stumps and Raina was trapped in front of his middle stump.
Skipper Dhoni showed glimpses of his old self in a cameo of 18-ball 29. His two sixes — off left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah and leggie Yuzvendra Chahal — were effortless.
SCOREBOARD
Chennai Super Kings: D. Smith b Starc 0, B. McCullum c Abdulla b Wiese 20, S. Raina lbw b Patel 52, F. du Plessis b Patel 24, M.S. Dhoni c Starc b Wiese 29, R. Jadeja c Kohli b Chahal 3, P. Negi b Starc 13, D. Bravo c Wiese b Starc 2, Mohit Sharma (run out) 0, A. Nehra (not out) 0. Extras (w-5) 5. Total (for nine wickets in 20 overs) 148.
FoW: 1-0, 2-34, 3-98, 4-101, 5-122, 6-139, 7-147, 8-148, 9-148.
Bowling: Starc 4-1-24-3, Chahal 4-0-36-1, Wiese 4-0-29-2, Patel 4-0-19-2, Abdulla 3-0-34-0, Kohli 1-0-6-0.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: N. Maddinson b Pandey 4, V. Kohli (run out) 48, AB de Villiers c du Plessis b Pandey 21, Mandeep Singh (run out) 0, D. Karthik c Smith b Nehra 23, S. Khan c Smith b Nehra 8, D. Wiese c Negi b Bravo 17, H. Patel c Dhoni b Nehra 0, M. Starc c Raina b Mohit 1, I. Abdulla c Negi b Bravo 0, Y. Chahal (not out) 0. Extras (lb-1, w-1) 2. Total (in 19.4 overs) 124.
FoW: 1-10, 2-34, 3-34, 4-97, 5-97, 6-111, 7-112, 8-124, 9-124, 10-124.
Bowling: Pandey 4-0-28-2, Nehra 4-0-19-3, Mohit 4-0-29-1, Jadeja 2-0-11-0, Negi 2-0-19-0, Bravo 3.4-0-17-2.
( Source : dc )
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