Chennai Super Kings journey under new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad began on a good note as the five-time champions defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets in Chennai. RCB scored 173/6 batting first and CSK chased down the target quite easily. Replacing an impactful figure like MS Dhoni is never easy and the same is with Ruturaj Gaikwad. "Feel privileged. But I want to try and be in my shoes, not fill anybody's shoes," he said before the start of the tournament.
Ruturaj Gaikwad's captaincy impressed Irfan Pathan too, who wrote on X: "Brilliant come back by CSK after the first 26 balls. Ruturaj's bowling changes under pressure were impressive. #CSKvsRCB"
During the course of the match, visuals showed Dhoni setting the field. The camera also focused more on Dhoni, which led to Virender Sehwag in his own style.
"Bhai Ruturaj ka bhi chahraa dekha do ek do baar(in camera) vo bhi captain hai sirf Dhoni ka hi Chahraa dekha raha hai (Brother, Please show Rituraj's face as well (in camera), he is captain. The cameraman is showing only Dhoni's face)," Sehwag could be heard as saying.
Talking about the game, Mustafizur Rahman set it up with his bagful of cerebral variations before Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube got the job done with their superlative finishing skills to script a comfortable six-wicket win for Chennai Super Kings over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL opener on Friday. CSK, who have not lost to RCB at home since 2008, thus kept their enviable record intact.
Mustafizur, with his best ever IPL figures of 4/29 in four overs, was largely responsible for restricting RCB to 173 for six on a good batting track, where a 95-run sixth wicket stand off 50 balls between Anuj Rawat (48 off 25 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (38 not out off 26 balls) was the visitors' only saving grace.
Jadeja (25 not out off 17 balls) brought his oodles of experience just when things could have got tricky in the run chase, hurrying a rusty Dube (34 off 28 balls) into completing some quick doubles to complete the chase in 18.4 overs. Dube also grew in confidence in Jadeja's company towards the end as he finished the chase in a jiffy.
Credit should also be given to Rachin Ravindra (37 off 15 balls), who teed off in brilliant fashion with three sixes and as many boundaries to set the tone.
Ajinkya Rahane (27 off 19 balls), who had a forgettable Ranji season with the bat, also hit a couple of sixes before a great piece of outfielding by Glenn Maxwell saw his back.
Dube and Daryl Mitchell (22 off 18 balls) were peppered with short balls from Alzarri Joseph and Cameron Green with the latter falling prey to one such delivery.
When RCB batted, Mustafizur brought back memories of his rookie days but an impressive rear-guard action from Rawat took RCB to a fighting total.
With PTI inputs