Chennai Super Kings defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 5 wickets in the 24th match of VIVO IPL 18 played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and bowled first. De Villiers and de Kock knock, Mandeep Singh quickfire knock helped RCB to post 205 for 8 in 20 overs. While chasing this target, CSK lost early wickets but Rayadu 82, Dhoni 70 not out and Bravo big hit in final over helped the visitors win the match.
Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. RCB captain Virat Kohli came to open with Quinton de Kock added 35 runs for the first wicket. Shardul Thakur dismissed dangerous Kohli for 18 runs. AB de Villiers played with positive intent and looked in aggressive touch. At the end of 6 overs, RCB posted 52 for 1.
After the power play overs, both de Kock and AB de Villiers continued to smash the Chennai Super Kings bowlers. It was a great batting display by both RCB batsmen. De Kock reached his 50 first off 35 balls while de Villiers followed him to reach his half-century off 23 balls. Quinton de Kock was dismissed for 53. Both of them added 103 runs for the 2nd wicket.
AB de Villiers and Corey Anderson were dismissed by Imran Tahir in quick succession. Mandeep Singh came to the crease playing a quickfire cameo scoring 32 off 17 balls. In the last over Washington Sundar hit 13 off 4 balls to help RCB post a big total of 205 for 8 in 20 overs.
Chasing 206, Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a good start as Pawan Negi picked the wicket of Shane Watson in the very first over. Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayadu played with positive intent putting on 42 runs. Suresh Raina was dismissed before the power play overs. At the end of 6 overs, Chennai Super Kings scored 55 for 2.
After the power play overs, Sam Billings also was dismissed for 9 runs. Rayadu looked set with positive stroke play. Ravindra Jadeja also got out cheaply by Yuzvendra Chahal for 3 runs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rayadu showed their class against the RCB bowlers. Rayadu completed his half-century off 40 balls while Mahendra Singh Dhoni also played with positive intent against a weak RCB bowling line up.
Despite Yuzvendra Chahal and Umesh Yadav bowling well, CSK Dhoni and Rayadu took on other RCB bowlers smashing them to all parts of the ground.
Rayadu was dismissed in the 18th over for 82 runs off 53 balls. With 30 runs required off the last 2 overs, Mohammad Siraj gave away 14 runs. With 16 runs required in the last over, Bravo hit a four and six. MS Dhoni hit a big six to give Chennai Super Kings a 5 wicket win with 2 balls to spare.
CSK 207 for 5 in 19.4 overs ( Rayadu 82, MS Dhoni 70*, Chahal 2/26, Umesh Yadav 1/23) beat
RCB 205 for 8 in 20 overs ( AB de Villiers 68, Quinton de Kock 53, Mandeep Singh 32, Imran Tahir 2/35, Bravo 2/33) by 5 wickets.
RCB captain Virat Kohli said: The way we bowled in the death overs was not acceptable. We cant defend over 200 runs and need to address the bowling going forward into the tournament. The pitch really played well, with spin playing a big factor. Rayadu was brilliant while MS Dhoni showed his class.
CSK captain and Man of the match MS Dhoni said: AB de Villiers batted brilliantly. It was a great batting display but they were 15-20 runs short. We lost key batsmen in the first few overs, it is a small ground and the ball travels. AB de Villiers innings was special. Credit goes to the spinners as everyone is chipping in the squad.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on Kings XI Punjab in tomorrow’s match at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
