Royal Challengers Bangalore put in a lot of effort with the ball to bring their chase of 173 all the way down to the penultimate over, but in the end, Chennai Super Kings easily defeated the goal by a 6-wicket margin. In the closely contested match, Mustafizur Rahman’s four-wicket haul turned out to be the game-changer.
To prolong the game, RCB goes short.
RCB used the height of Alzarri Joseph and Cameron Green to attack CSK with a lot of back-of-length deliveries and short balls on a pitch that was not providing much help for the bowlers. They were challenging to push to the boundary and even gave the RCB early wickets. Daryl Mitchell and Ajinkya Rahane were both pulling too deep square leg. RCB made sure that the boundary-flow was stopped in the opening game by taking full advantage of the two bouncers allowed per over during the season. It was imperative that they took this action.
Why is it the case?
because, in any case, CSK had gotten off to an incredible start in the hunt. With the help of newcomer Rachin Ravindra’s 15-ball 37 and cameos from Ajinkya Rahane and Ruturaj Gaikwad, the new captain, they nearly reached 100 in the first ten overs. Thus, RCB’s short-ball strategy was able to somewhat change the course of play.
Why were they unable to endure the distance?
CSK was defeated by Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja thanks to an undefeated 66-run partnership. Dube misjudged the pulls and felt uneasy against the short ball at first, but he was fortunate to see them drop in empty spaces. He and Jadeja eventually figured out a better strategy to counter the short ball, and he even managed to drive a couple of boundaries into the third man area before finishing with a huge pulled six to take CSK over the finish line.
Would 173 be sufficient for RCB?
Dinesh Karthik, who batted on the surface and thought it was great for batting, said that the answer is probably not. This came shortly after he and Anuj Rawat (48) shared a potentially game-changing partnership of 95 off 50 balls for the sixth wicket. The pair had hauled RCB from 78/5 to a total substantially closer to what was probably at that stage. Although the pitch behaves differently in the dark, CSK would not have objected to being instructed to pursue the target.
Why was there not more on the field for RCB?
because of Rahman Mustafizur.
On a notoriously gripping Chepauk pitch, the Bangladeshi seamer made his CSK debut and was a great fit for the role that the injured Matheesha Pathirana would play. He entered the game following a furious outburst by Faf du Plessis during the powerplay, smashing eight boundaries in his 35 balls and making a significant contribution to the opening stand of 41 runs with Virat Kohli. Du Plessis faced a different obstacle when he attempted to cut the ball to the deep on the offside, where Rachin made a deft running catch, after he had successfully tackled the movement in the air and drawn boundaries across the infield on the offside. In the same over, the pacer added to his total when he caught Rajat Patidar behind. Mustafizur was sent on again as he delivered when Kohli was caught in the deep by a superb relay catch and Green backed away to be bowled by a cutter as they were starting to form a partnership. After ten deliveries, Mustafizur had already claimed four wickets for CSK. With Glenn Maxwell caught behind by Deepak Chahar for a duck in between, the renowned top order of RCB was left staring down the barrel.
How did they get better?
through Karthik and Rawat taking a brisk stand. It took the pair a few overs to get comfortable, but they quickly found their rhythm. While Karthik took advantage of Theekshana’s errant deliveries to smash a six and a four in an over, Rawat got things moving with a couple of boundaries off Chahar. In the final five overs, they combined to score 71, including a 25-run over Tushar Deshpande. Two balls short of a fifty, Rawat was run out on the final ball of the innings, but it was still a magnificent innings that bodes well for RCB in the remaining games of the tournament.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 176/4 in 18.4 overs (Rachin Ravindra 37, Shivam Dube 34*; Cameron Green 2-27) defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru 172/6 in 20 overs (Anuj Rawat 48, Dinesh Karthik 38*) by 6 wickets.
