IPL Highlights, Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings: CSK Beat RCB By 5 Wickets, Top Table
An exciting contest was on cards when the two sides resumed their intense rivalry.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni pulled off another masterclass as Chennai Super Kings chased down Royal Challengers Bangalore's mammoth total of 205 with two balls to spare in their Indian Premier League encounter at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday. With this win, Chennai go at the top of the IPL points table. Earlier, South Africans AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock's struck breezy half centuries to power Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a mammoth 205/8 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. De Kock (53, 37 balls; 4x1, 6x4) played the perfect supporting role in the 103-run second wicket stand with de Villiers (68 off 30; 4x2, 6x8), who started from the word go to bring up his half century in just 23 deliveries. Put in to bat, RCB got off to a decent 35-run start by skipper Virat Kohli (18) and de Kock before Shardul Thakur saw the back of the Indian captain, thanks to a smart catch by Ravindra Jadeja. But the visitors wouldn't have imagined what was coming their way, as de Villiers started off by clobbering Harbhajan Singh for two consecutive sixes before launching left-arm spinner Jadeja to the skies. Take a look at the NDTV Fantasy section. You can Play Fantasy Cricket here.
Such was the dominance from the former Proteas skipper that the hosts raced to 87/1 midway into the innings, with both de Villiers and de Kock nearing their respective fifties. Despite being overshadowed by his senior partner, the southpaw brought up his half century in style, tonking Shane Watson for a six over deep mid-wicket. On the first ball of the very next over, de Villiers, who had earlier clobbered leg-spinner Imran Tahir for two massive sixes, took Thakur to the cleaners thrice consecutively to bring up his half century. With both the RCB batsmen going hammer and tongs, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni threw the ball to his West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, and the "Champion" responded in style by packing back de Kock with a smart catch off his own follow through. Tahir then joined the party by bagging the prized scalp of de Villiers and new man Corey Anderson (2) in the very next over to restore parity into the match. (SCORECARD)
De Villiers miscued Tahir's tossed-up delivery pitched outside off-stump for Sam Billings to complete the formalities at deep cover. Tahir immediately got rid of New Zealand's Anderson with a googly as Harbhajan Singh completed a brilliant catch at slip. With the hosts comfortably placed at 142/4, Mandeep Singh (32 off 17; 4x1, 6x3) and Colin de Grandhomme (11) struck a few lusty blows towards the end, even as two run-outs and a wicket in the final over could not stop RCB from crossing the 200-run mark.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Captain), Quinton de Kock(WK), Brendon McCullum, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Manan Vohra, Aniket Choudhary, Navdeep Saini, Murugan Ashwin, Pawan Negi, Mohammed Siraj, Corey Anderson, Parthiv Patel, Aniruddha Joshi, Pavan Deshpande, Tim Southee.
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/WK), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, K.M. Asif, Kanishk Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan.
When and Where to Watch Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
India: TV: Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD (English, Hindi, Tamil). Live Streaming: Hotstar.
UK: TV: Sky Sports 2. Live Streaming: Sky Go and Watch Sky Sports.
Bangladesh: TV: GTV and Star Sports.
USA: TV: Willow TV. Live Streaming: Willow TV Live Online.
Australia: TV: Fox Sports. Live Streaming: Foxtel.
New Zealand: TV: Sky Sport 1. Live Streaming: Sky Go NZ.
South Africa: TV: SuperSport 2. Live Streaming: SuperSport Live Video.
Middle East: TV: OSN Sports Cricket. Live Streaming: OSN Play.
Singapore: TV: Star Cricket.
RCB vs CSK Live Score
So that is it from this game. Another cracking encounter and Chennai win their third game in a row. For Virat Kohli's men, it keeps getting tough as they suffer their fourth defeat in their 6th game. The Indian T20 League continues tomorrow as Hyderabad take on Punjab in the former's den at 2000 IST (1430 GMT). Till then, take care and goodbye!
MS Dhoni is given the Man of the Match as he rolled back the years and scored a match-winning 70 from just 34 balls.
Once again the Bangalore bowling failed to stand up in the death. Umesh Yadav was impressive first up and Yuzvendra Chahal spun a web around the visitors' batsmen in the middle. The two finished with combined figures of 8-0-49-3. They got no support from the rest as all the others were taken to the cleaners. Also the dropped catch of Ambati Rayudu cost them a lot as he added 21 runs after that. All in all, they suffer another defeat and this one is a game they might have felt they could have won.
Chasing a massive target of 206, Chennai got off to the worst start possible. They lost Watson in the first over itself. Rayudu and Raina did try and counter-attack but three wickets in quick succession saw Chennai staring down the barrel at 74/4. But then, Dhoni and Rayudu joined forces. They paced the chase extremely well and stitched a 101-run stand off just 54 balls. Both got to their half tons before the latter was run out leaving the Men in Yellow needing another 31 in 13. Then came out Bravo and he along with Dhoni finished it off with their skipper hitting the winning runs.
Phew! What a game, this Indian T20 League is throwing thrillers after thrillers and this is surely one of the best of this season. Take a bow, Dhoni. Take a bow, Rayudu! What an innings by the two. They came out when Chennai were down and out and have taken their side through to the top of the table.
SIX! Dhoni finishes it off in style! The best finisher, you bet he is. What a shot. What an innings. Vintage Dhoni is what he witnessed here. This is full and outside off, Dhoni shuffles across even before the ball is bowled, gets underneath it and smashes it into the mid-wicket stands. No reaction from him after that maximum, he is cool and calm as he receives a big hug from Bravo who comes rushing towards him as CHENNAI WIN BY 5 RUNS!
A single! This is short and outside off, Bravo cuts it to deep point for a run. 5 from 3 and Dhoni is on strike. Excitement at the highest level.
SiX! 10 from the two balls. It is not Dhoni, it is Bravo doing the job. 6 more needed from 4 balls. This is short and outside off once again. Bravo rocks back and hits it over covers, the place where he loves to go for a biggie.
FOUR! Ideal start! Anywhere will do. 12 needed from 5 balls. Chennai are now favourites I feel. Short and outside off, Bravo goes for the pull but gets a top edge which evades the diving keeper and into the fence. Pressure, pressure on the bowler now.
16 in the last over needed. Can arguably the best finisher in the game do it? He is not on strike though at the moment. Bravo is as Corey Anderson will bowl the last over. Can he keep his cool? Let us wait to find out...