SURESH Raina’s 32-ball 62 set Chennai Super Kings on course to 181 for 8, before Ashish Nehra’s four wickets for 10 runs sent Royal Challengers Bangalore’s chase into the Chinnaswamy Stadium dirt.Not even a half-century from Virat Kohli could lift his team off the bottom of the table, as Super Kings caught superbly, and bowled with discipline to leave the hosts 27 runs short.
Dwayne Smith struck his customary early boundaries, blasting two successive sixes and a four in David Wiese’s seventh over, but it was when Raina began to accelerate that Super Kings appeared to be headed to a daunting score.
He had hit Harshal Patel for successive fours then launched Wiese into the sightscreen in the Powerplay, having arrived soon after Yuzvendra Chahal’s leg-spin undid Brendon McCullum. Raina’s dominance of spin was the feature of his knock, and Iqbal Abdulla was his first slow-bowling victim.
Raina advanced to send Abdulla’s first ball way back into the stands beyond long-on, before cracking him for a four past point then lifting him into the long on stand again two overs later.
When Chahal came back into the attack, Raina became even more bloody-minded. A still out-of-sorts MS Dhoni turned the strike over to him at the start of the 13th over, and Raina went on the rampage.
He ran down at the bowler and lifted him over long on, again, for six. He expected Chahal to drop the next one short, and stayed in his crease but, even when the bowler delivered a good-length ball he swung it high and hard over cow corner. The next slog-sweep was struck less cleanly, but still comfortably cleared the rope.
His undoing came when he tried to hit his first six against the spin, next ball. Rilee Russouw ran around from long off to pouch him comfortably.
At 124 for 3 after 13 overs, Super Kings may have had designs for a score over 200, but Royal Challengers’ bowlers claimed wickets often enough to rein in the run rate. Dhoni holed out for a run-a-ball 13 attempting a big shot over cover, his promotion to No. 4 not having worked. Then Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo both fell to Abdulla after mediocre knocks.
Faf du Plessis took a liking to Mitchell Starc towards the close, cracking two fours off the 17th over, while the remaining Super Kings batsmen gave him scant support. His unbeaten 33 from 18 balls lifted Super Kings above 180, even after Starc delivered a four-run final over.
Having dropped Chris Gayle for this match, Royal Challengers’ chase began brightly enough. Manvinder Bisla hit a boundary either side of the wicket in Ishwar Pandey’s first over, then he and Russouw plundered 19 off Mohit Sharma. Nehra struck twice in the fourth over, and the hosts’ run rate plummeted from there.
Virat Kohli began cautiously then freed his arms to hit two fours and a six off R Ashwin in the eighth over, but he could not hold onto his partners, thanks in part to Super Kings’ excellent fielding.
Dinesh Karthik was out to a good diving catch from Dwayne Bravo at long-on, then when AB de Villiers turned to take a second run three overs later, Dhoni turned a mediocre throw into a run-out, by flicking the ball briskly onto the stumps to catch the batsman short of his ground.
Kohli continued to watch wickets fall at the other end, and the chase foundered in the middle overs. With six overs to go, Royal Challengers needed 83 runs, with five wickets remaining. Kohli would battle on to 51 from 42 balls, but Nehra struck in successive balls to remove him and Harshal Patel in the 17th over, effectively sealing the game. (ESPN Cricinfo).
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