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Chennai: The Chennai Super Kings maintained their unbeaten record at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai asthey defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 24 runs on Monday.
After batting first and setting the visitors a target of 149, CSK clawed their way back into the match after the visitors called the shots at one point and looked favourites to walk away with the two points. RCB who were in control of the run chase at one point, collapsed to bowled out for 124.
At the start of the run-chase, RCB lost opener Nic Maddinson in the third over. AB de Villiers started off with a bang, hitting two boundaries in the first four balls he faced. The South African struck three more boundaries and raced to 21 from 13 balls before his attempt to drive a low full toss landed in the hands of Faf du Plessis at mid off.
The rescue job came from Kohli and Dinesh Karthik, who added 63 runs in just under nine overs.
Just when it appeared that the balance was tilting slightly in favour of the visitors, Dwayne Bravo came up with a piece of magic for the hosts. After Kohli had stepped out and driven straight back, Bravo fielded it in his follow through, had the presence of mind to fling the ball back at the striker’s end wickets catching the RCB captain out of his ground. Kohli made 48 from 44 balls, aided with two boundaries and a six.
Karthik's dismissal the following delivery – when he picked Dwayne Smith at the squareleg boundary, meant the wheels had come off the chase.
For CSK, Ashish Nehra took his tally of wickets – together with the three wickets in this match – to 17 wickets. Ishwar Pandey and Bravo picked up two wickets each. In all, the four quick bowlers bowled 15.4 overs and returned with eight wickets.
Earlier, after opting to bat first, Chennai Super Kings batsmen struggled to come to terms with a difficult surface. The first over of the innings turned out to be a wicket maiden; Dwayne Smith failed put bat to ball for the first five deliveries, after which Mitchell Starc landed the perfect yorker that uprooted the stumps behind the opening batsman.
Brendon McCullum played a few strokes and raced to 20 runs before he was second man out, holing out to midwicket. Suresh Raina, who would finish innings top-scorer, and Faf du Plessis resurrected the innings with a 64-run partnership – the highest of the innings.
Brief scores
Chennai Super Kings - 148/9 (Raina 52, Starc 3-24)
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 124 (Kohli 48, Nehra 3-19)
Result - Chennai Super Kings won by 24 runs
Points - Chennai Super Kings 2, Royal Challengers Bangalore 0
MOM - Suresh Raina (Chennai Super Kings)
