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Chennai Super Kings 71 for 3 (Rayudu 28) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 70 (Patel 29, Tahir 3-9, Harbhajan 3-20, Jadeja 2-15) by seven wickets
Chennai: The first game of IPL 2019 was hyped as Dhoni vs Kohli, everyone was expecting a nail biter, but instead, two old warhorses from Chennai dismantled the RCB batting line up.
Clearly, from team selection, it was visible that one side read the pitch and the other did not, as CSK picked horses for courses and stacked their team with four spinners. RCB, on the other hand, had four fast bowlers and two spinners in Chahal and Moeen Ali.
CSK won the toss and M.S. Dhoni elected to field first, and from ball one we saw the ball turn. Harbhajan Singh, who has spent most of his time in the commentary box recently, was handed the second over and bowled superbly.
He ended up with three huge wickets of AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Moeen Ali. His spell won the game for CSK and broke the back of RCB as he varied his pace and deceived the batsmen with turn and guile.
Imran Tahir, another veteran, gave Harbhajan able support as he picked up three wickets for just nine runs in his quota of four overs.
RCB only had one player reaching the double-figure mark and that was Parthiv Patel, who batted with responsibility and took the pitch into consideration.
On a pitch like this, 120 would have been a match-winning score so when Kohli got out he should have broadcasted this message to the dugout and the rest of the batsmen should have worked to reach that target.
The ball was turning square and as we saw throughout the match as a batsman you were never in. It is about making that quick adjustment which RCB lacked and that led to their downfall.
CSK started off their innings cautiously as both Chahal and Moeen Ali got the ball to grip and turn. In the end, though it was a comfortable chase if RCB had another 40 runs or so it would have been a different ball game altogether. Rayudu top scored with 28 and was supported by Jadhav and Raina.
RCB need to regroup and think hard after this loss, they cannot afford another failed season. The whole team needs to get together and come up with a strategy which will turn this failure into success.
Firstly they need to get team selection right, both Kohli and Kirsten got the selection all wrong today. Even if they did not read the pitch properly they should have played Washington Sundar as we know spinners do get purchase in India.
Four seamers including De Grandhomme was excessive and come the next game they have to do a better job when putting a starting eleven together.
Kohli should take a leaf out of Dhoni's book. MSD does not have the greatest team on paper but he instills a belief in his players that they are winners which reflects in their performances.
CSK have a lot of players who are close to the retirement age or even past it but Dhoni knows the limitations and strengths of his side and plans accordingly. Kohli has some world class players in his arsenal and he needs to bring the best out of them before the pressure gets unbearable.
