A sensational bowling effort by Chennai Super Kings saw them defend a modest total as they crushed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 24 runs to regain their position at the top of the table in the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, in Chennai on Monday.
Having posted a modest 148 for nine in 20 overs, CSK bowlers led by Ashish Nehra (3/19 in four overs) and Dwayne Bravo (2/19 in 3.4 overs) exhibited brilliant death over skills to bundle out RCB for 124 in 19.4 overs.
Such was the dominance of CSK bowlers at the back end of the innings that RCB lost as many as seven wickets for 27 runs in only 5.5 overs.
From a relatively comfortable 97 for three with another 52 runs to get, RCB’s slump started when Bravo effected a superb reflex run-out off his own bowling to get rid of opposition skipper Virat Kohli (48 off 44 balls).
Kohli had hit two fours and a six during his knock as he added 63 runs for the fourth wicket with Dinesh Karthik (23) after they were left tottering at 34 for three.
Once Kohli was gone, the procession started, with Karthik being snapped up in the deep off Nehra’s bowling in the 15th over. In his very next over, the veteran seamer removed Safaraz Khan (8) and Harshal Patel (0) to take his wickets tally to 17 in the tournament.
Bravo, on his part, bowled an exceptional 18th over with clever change ups and the off-cutters which led to Mitchell Starc playing four dot balls.
On his part, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni read the pitch perfectly as he knew that it would slow down with passage of time and strokemaking would be extremely difficult in the second half. His intuition turned out to be spot on as his bowlers vindicated his decision
Earlier, at the start of the match, the two captains chipped in with their views:
MS Dhoni : We are going to bat first, it is quite difficult to predict this wicket. It looks hard from the top, it will slow down as the game progresses. Ashwin will take bit more time to recover, we don't want to push him early, stitches take time to heal. We have made one change. Ishwar Pandey replaces Rohit More.
Virat Kohli : We would have wanted to bat first as well, now it is up to the bowlers. We have been in good chasing form. Yeah momentum is with us and the players know how to keep up with the momentum which is very important in this format. We have made couple of changes. Gayle has been rested, Nic Maddinson in is, while Iqbal Abdulla comes in for Varun Aaron.
The teams
Chennai: D Smith , B McCullum , S Raina , F Du Plessis , MS Dhoni (Wkt)(Capt) , DJ Bravo , P Negi , R Jadeja , M Sharma, I Pandey , A Nehra
Bangalore: N Maddinson , V Kohli (Capt) , AB de Villiers , Mandeep S , D Karthik (Wkt) , SN Khan , D Wiese , H Patel , M Starc , I Abdulla , Y Chahal
