IPL 2015 - CSK register a comfortable win against RCB

IPL 2015 – CSK register a comfortable win against RCB: The Chennai Super Kings returned recovered well from their huge defeat against Rajasthan Royals as they outplayed Royals Challengers Bangalore at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium as the hosts recorded their third consecutive loss at the venue.

Chasing Chennai Super Kings’ 181, Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a flyer with openers Bisla and Rossouw scoring 31 in just 3 overs. But Ashish Nehra struck twice in his second over to send back both the openers. After the wickets, Chennai bowlers kept tight as Karthik and Kohli struggled to score runs. Soon Karthik was removed by Pandey.

However, de Villiers coming in was a booster for RCB as he smashed a couple of sixes early in his innings. But a wrong call from Kohli ended the South African’s innings too early inform of runout. The young debutant Sarfaraz struck a six off Jadeja’s bowling but fell in the same over holing out at deep midwicket. Kohli kept his fight continuing by striking couple of fours in 15th over. He brought up his fifty with a six in 40 balls but soon fell to Nehra. Ashish Nehra picked up one more wicket on the next delivery as Harshal Patel got out for duck.

David Weise and Mitchell Starc could just bring down the winning margin of Chennai Super Kings as they ended up with 154 for 7, felling short of target by 27 runs.

Earlier, Kohli won the toss and decided to bowl first in a rain delayed game. However, there were no overs lost but Chennai lost its first wicket in the second over only with McCullum got out to Chahal. Raina opened his account with a boundary which was almost caught by de Villiers at long off. Raina and Smith kept their shots playing as a formidable stand began to build before Smith edged one to keeper for a 29-ball 39 bringing an end to 58 runs stand.

MS Dhoni coming at no.4 was surprise and he got off the mark with a boundary on first ball. Raina looked like returning to his IPL form as he kept hitting the big ones. Especially in 13th over when he hit Chahal for hattrick sixes before getting out in same over. He brought up his first fifty of this edition in 29 balls and scored 62 in 32 balls.

The collapse of CSK began with the dismissal as Dhoni and Jadeja got out in successive overs. But Du Plessis and Bravo managed to hit 3 fours in Starc’s over but Bravo and Ashwin departed in vain of scoring quickly. The final over delivered by Starc produced just 4 runs with Mohit Sharma getting out on fourth ball of the over after playing three dots as they ended up with 181 for 8.

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 154 for 7 (Virat Kohli 51, Ashish Nehra 4/10) lost to Chennai Super Kings 181 for 8 (Suresh Raina 62, Yuzvendra Chahal 3/40)

Stats in the game:

–> Sarfaraz Khan playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore became the youngest debutant in IPL with an age of 17 years 177 days bettering Pradeep Sangwan’s record of 17 years 179 days.

–> Dwayne Smith went past 5000 runs in Twenty20 format becoming the 9th player to do so.

–> Suresh Raina brought up his 24th fifty in IPL standing second behind Gautam Gambhir, who has 26 fifties in IPL on his name.

–> Ashish Nehra recorded his first 4-fer in IPL. His previous best figures in IPL have been 3/15. This was his second 4-fer in Twenty20s. His previous best figures in T20 have been 4/21.

–> After this game, Ashish Nehra became the Purple Cap holder of IPL 2015 by picking up 10 wickets in 5 matches played but has a better average than Imran Tahir.