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Bangalore: An unbeaten 54 from Faf du Plessis and MS Dhoni's blazing 49 off 28 balls helped Chennai Super Kings snap their three-match losing streak as they thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight wickets with 14 balls to spare in their final league game at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday.
This was CSK's first win over RCB at the Chinnaswamy since 2008.
Chasing 155, CSK got off to a flying start with Dwayne Smith and du Plessis flaying the RCB bowlers all over the park. Ravi Rampaul went for 15 in his first over while Mitchell Starc was smashed for 18 runs as they notched up the fifty-run stand in just 24 balls.
Rampaul got his revenge when he snapped up Smith for 34. There was a period in the middle overs when CSK found it hard to score runs against some disciplined bowling from Yuzvendra Chahal and Yuvraj Singh.
CSK benefited from a blunder by umpire Nigel Llong in the 11th over. Du Plessis came down the track and gloved the ball onto the pad. The ball lobbed up to the leg side and Yogesh Takawale snapped up the catch. RCB were sure that they had their man but the umpire did not give it out.
In the course of the du Plessis-Dhoni stand, the CSK skipper twisted his ankle but he carried on. In the 16th over, Takawale missed a simple stumping of Dhoni with the match evenly poised. The bowler, Yuvraj Singh, could not believe it and he went on to concede 22 runs. The 16th over blunder changed the course of the game and CSK cantered to victory.
Earlier in the day, a wonderful fifty from RCB skipper Virat Kohli helped them reach 155/6. Put into bat, RCB went into the match with four changes. Chris Gayle, who was struggling for form and fitness in this edition, was shunted out and Rilee Rossouw replaced him.
Rampaul, Shadab Jakati and Vijay Zol were the other additions in the RCB team while CSK brought in Samuel Badree and Ashish Nehra in place of Pawan Negi and John Hastings
RCB got off to a poor start when Nehra cleaned up Rossouw for 1. Yogesh Takawale hit three fours in one over of Samuel Badree but perished in R Ashwin's first over. Vijay Zol played a rash shot across the line to Mohit Sharma and departed for 13.
Kohli and Yuvraj Singh then rebuilt the innings slowly, with Kohli deciding to play the role of the aggressor.
Jadeja broke the 55-run stand but Kohli upped the ante by smashing a wonderful fifty off 40 balls. AB de Villiers looked threatening before Nehra sent him back for 10. Kohli was unstoppable though and he made 73 as RCB plundered 55 runs in the last five overs to reach a competitive total.
Earlier, CSK have won the toss and have opted to field first.
For CSK, Badree and Nehra are in for Hastings and Negi
for RCB, Gayle is out, so are Muralitharan, Dinda and Nechim. Coming in are Rampaul, Rossouw, Zol and Jakati
Teams:
Chennai: Dwayne Smith, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, David Hussey, MS Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mithun Manhas, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ashish Nehra
Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Capt.), Vijay Zol, Rilee Rossouw, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Yogesh Takawale (wk), Sachin Rana, Ravi Rampaul, Mitchell Starc, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati
Brief scores:
Bangalore - 154/6 (Kohli 73, Nehra 3-33)
Chennai - 160/2 (du Plessis 54*, Dhoni 49*, Smith 34)
Result - Chennai Super Kings won by 8 wickets
Points - Chennai Super Kings 2, Royal Challengers Bangalore 0
