Royal Challengers Bengaluru brought an end to a 17-year winless streak at Chepauk as they trounced Chennai Super Kings in their own backyard to start their season with twin victories. Inserted, RCB posted a formidable 196 on the board, chasing which was a tough ask for the hosts who incurred their biggest defeat at home in terms of runs.
What was the deciding factor?
While Phil Salt set the tone for RCB with a sweltering 32, CSK were not able to blaze off the blocks in similar fashion. Instead, they were put under duress in those initial overs where they lost as many as three wickets. From thereon, they could never resuscitate the innings and eventually went down by 50 runs.
Phil Salt establishes the platform
When the conditions are on the tackier side, it becomes all the more important that teams optimize the first six overs given the comparative innocuousness with which the ball comes on to the bat. Salt walked out with intent right from the word go, as he always does no matter the color of the jersey, and hit Khaleel Ahmed for a couple of boundaries. CSK’s decision to bowl R Ashwin from the other end blew up in their face as Salt welcomed the stalwart with a six over backward square leg and proceeded to cause further damage. It wasn’t that smooth-sailing for Virat Kohli though as he needed a full toss from Noor Ahmad to eventually collect his first boundary. However, in the same over, Noor stopped Salt in his tracks as MS Dhoni’s lightning-quick hands yet again engineered a sharp stumping.
Rajat Patidar keeps the momentum going in middle-overs
Padikkal fancied his changes against positive match-up Ravindra Jadeja post the PowerPlay before an excellent catch by Ruturaj Gaikwad sent him back. However, Gaikwad’s effort was the anomaly as CSK kept handing Rajat Patidar one chance after another. Kohli had by now grown in confidence a little bit, thanks to a six and a four he brandished off the returning Matheesha Pathirana. However, it turned to be just a flicker of fluency as he shortly swept Noor straight to the man at deep mid-wicket. Patidar remained unfazed despite losing his senior partner, targetting Jadeja in the very next over to set RCB up for a strong finish.
RCB innings concludes on an eventful note
The final phase of the innings commenced with Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma thwacking a six each in Noor’s final over but the Afghan spinner did manage to pick the Englishman’s wicket during its course. Khaleel terminated Jitesh’s cameo and when Pathirana returned for his second spell, he proved expensive before bouncing back in his last over with the wickets of Patidar and Krunal Pandya. He thus dented RCB’s hopes of finishing with a total north of 200. However, Tim David uncorked three sixes off Curran to hand his franchise a late boost.
How do you reply after you are hit for a six? 🤔
Noor Ahmad says TIMBER STRIKE 🎯
Updates ▶ https://t.co/I7maHMwxDS #TATAIPL | #CSKvRCB | @ChennaiIPL | @noor_ahmad_15 pic.twitter.com/5iPkPjxWwe
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 28, 2025
Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar put CSK through the wringer
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s presence strengthened the RCB attack a great deal, especially in the PowerPlay where RCB dented CSK to secure the ascendancy. Firstly, Josh Hazlewood produced a double wicket over that immediately sucked the life out of the tall chase. Rahul Tripathi, looking terribly out of nick, mistimed a pull while Gaikwad was caught near the boundary. At 8/2, Deepak Hooda earned a promotion ahead of impact sub Shivam Dube, looking jittery to no end as he nicked off to give Bhuvneshwar his first wicket of the season. It meant the onus was again on Rachin Ravindra to bail CSK out of choppy waters, alongside Curran who was also sent ahead of Dube.
CSK get a taste of their own medicine in middle phase
In the absence of dew, RCB’s spinners continued to hurt the home side post the PowerPlay as well. Curran, looking to up the ante, fell to Livingstone that finally brought Dube out to the middle. An economical over by leg-spinner Suyash Sharma helped Yash Dayal reap the rewards as he removed Dube and Ravindra in an identical manner to hang the writing on the wall for CSK.
MS Dhoni’s lusty blows reduce the margin of defeat
With the decibel levels dropping at the sight of CSK’s implosion, a few tonks from Dhoni got the fans going. He dispatched the final ball to the boundary as well to stay unbeaten on 30 off 16. However, RCB emerged victorious nonetheless as Dhoni’s cameo could only cushion CSK on the NRR front.
