Chennai Super Kings 176 for 4 (Ravindran 37, Dubey 34*, Green 2-27) lost Royal Challengers Bangalore 173 for 6 (Ravat 48, Karthik 38*, du Plessis 35, Mustafizur 4-29) by six wickets
Chennai Super Kings, under a brand-new captain, enjoyed a successful start to their IPL title defense in front of a raucous crowd at Chepauk on Friday night. Mustafizur Rahman, one of four debutants for CSK, dismissed four of Royal Challengers Bangalore's top five inside ten balls to hand RCB an eighth successive defeat in Chennai.
Rachin Ravindra, who made his IPL debut, also played his part in the victory, scoring 37 off 15 balls at a strike rate of 246.66 on a slow pitch in the night. In his first match as CSK captain, Ruduraj Gaekwad opened with a first-ball boundary but RCB's impact player Yash Dayal reduced his innings to 15 runs in CSK's chase of 174 runs.
Cameron Green and Alzari Joseph briefly silenced the Chepak crowd with their contrasting styles. As Green slowly threw cutters down the pitch, Joseph drove at high speed and created a steep bounce, taking the pitch out of the equation.
Shivam Dubey, who has returned from injury, replaced Mustafizur as CSK's impact player and scored 7 runs off 13 balls. But then he led CSK home with an unbeaten 34 off 28 balls before he scored an unbeaten 25 off 17 balls. He expected when he handed over the keys to the CSK kingdom to Kaikwat.
RCB's Jekyll and Hyde Powerplay
Faf du Plessis, who hit 7 fours in the first three overs, was dismissed after electing to bat in his first IPL match as the opposition in Chennai. He incorporated any width offered by Deepak Chahar and Tusshar Deshpande, repeatedly driving them into the off-side infield. Gaekwad played the action, pushed the extra cover back to deep cover and Mustafizur got Du Plessis out for 35 off 21 balls to Rachin Ravindra. Three balls later, Mustafizur finds a bit of extra bounce to duck out Rajat Patidar. Then, in the final over of the powerplay, Chahar guided Glenn Maxwell straight into Dhoni's gloves.
After scoring 37 runs without loss in the first four overs, RCB lost 3 wickets for 5 runs in the next two overs.
Mustafizur is back in action
Mustafizur then returned in the 12th over and dismissed Virat Kohli and Green within three balls. While Kohli pulled a seam-up delivery to deep midwicket for 21 off 20 balls, Green was dismissed for 18 off 22 balls with a whip-cutter delivery. Mustafizur's second double-wicket over.
Mustafizur would not have played had CSK's death-over specialist Madisha Pathrana been fit. He finished with figures of 4-0-29-4 on a night when the other two seamers in his team – Chahar and Deshpande – went more than nine an over. With Pathrana back in action, CSK will have a happy selection headache.
Rawat and Karthik put the brakes on RCB
That RCB finished with 173 for 6, ended with a direct hit from Dhoni on the last ball of the innings.
At one stage, RCB went without a boundary in 28 balls, but Rawat then hit two in six balls to set RCB up for the final overs. He then bowled Deshpande 6, 6, 4 in the 18th over for 25 runs. At the other end, Karthik looked rusty to begin with but mixed power with intelligence to give RCB's innings more impetus.
Dubey gets the job done for CSK
After CSK lost Gaekwad in the powerplay, Ravindran lined up RCB's quicks with bulls and pick-up shots. He hits Karn Sharma over midwicket for a six, but as he goes for another six, he goes outside deep square leg.
Ajinkya Rahane (27 off 19 balls) and Daryl Mitchell (22 off 18 balls) made cameos to take the chase deep in typical CSK style. But when Green dropped Mitchell, CSK needed 64 off 45 balls. The two-bouncer rule empowered Joseph to run harder and hit the deck harder. Dubey, however, aced the short-ball Test and sealed the chase with six wickets and eight balls to spare.
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