Spirited bowling performance by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) guided them to a 37-run victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) here at Dubai International Stadium on Saturday. Chasing a moderate target of 170, CSK openers failed to provide a solid start as they went back to the pavilion early. Washington Sundar scalped both Faf du Plessis (8) and Shane Watson (14) in fourth and sixth over respectively.
Ambati Rayudu and IPL debutant N Jagadeesan played cautiously and stitched a partnership of 64-run for the third wicket. In the 15th over, Jagadeesan fell short of his crease and was run out by Chris Morris. Jagadeesan played a knock of 33 runs. Skipper Dhoni joined Rayudu in the middle and added a 17-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Dhoni (10) was bagged by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 16th over as he was trying to attack the spinner.
Sam Curran failed to leaved his mark on the scoreboard and departed on a golden duck off Morris. In the 18th over, Rayudu was bowled out by Isuru Udana after playing a knock of 42 runs. Morris put halt to CSK’s hope of winning the game as he scalped Dwayne Bravo (7) and Ravindra Jadeja (7) in the penultimate over of the match. RCB restricted CSK to 132/8 in their allotted 20 overs. For RCB, Chris Morris bagged three wickets while Washington Sundar claimed two scalps.
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Kohli started the final over by skipping across the stumps and flicking the ball behind square leg for four. Running between the wickets was at best as Kohli and Dube ran four doubles in the final over. After opting to bat first, RCB got off to a bad start with opener Aaron Finch back in the dugout in the third over. Skipper Kohli then joined Devdutt Padikkal and duo build a 54-run stand to revamp the innings. Padikkal played beautiful shots but scored runs at a run a ball.
Shardul Thakur ended Padikkal’s stint at the crease in the 11th over. Three balls later Shardul scalped AB de Villiers wicket to dent RCB’s hopes. Washington Sundar, who has promoted up the order, failed to leave a mark and edged the ball behind to MS Dhoni as RCB got reduced to 93/4 in the 15th over. Meanwhile, Kohli played cautiously and smashed his 38th half-century in IPL as RCB accelerated in the death overs. Shivam Dube too joined the party and smashed the much-needed boundaries.
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