Twitter Reactions: Sam Curran and Ruturaj Gaikwad shine in a much-needed win for CSK against RCB
RCB lost their fourth match of the season and they wait to qualify for the playoffs.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have finally put their best foot forward after losing three matches on the trot in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). They have managed to defeat the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) very comfortably to register their fourth win of the season. Ruturaj Gaikwad played superbly in the chase scoring his maiden fifty before the bowlers did a brilliant job to restrict the opposition.
After opting to bat first, RCB opener Aaron Finch couldn’t set the stage on fire once again. Sam Curran snapped him up for 15 runs after which Devdutt Padikkal was also holed out at long-off to leave the team at 46/2. The surface was on the slower side and CSK bowlers were bowling well too. This is when Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers joined hands and kept on rotating the strike to set the platform for the death overs.
The duo scored an odd boundary during the 82-run partnership in 68 balls. But both of the got out at the wrong time for RCB. The likes of Santner, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja kept them quiet in the middle overs and when the time came to go berserk, they just couldn’t get going. While Deepak Chahar got the better of the South African Superman, Kohli was dismissed by Curran not before he got to yet another fifty.
RCB never got the final kick to their innings as they ended their innings on 145/6 after 20 overs with Curran returning with the figures of 3/19 while Chahar (2/31) and Santner (1/23) were also economical.
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rayudu lead the chase
The pitch was supposed to slow down even more in the chase. But CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis got the team off to a brilliant start. The latter looked in great touch and took on the bowling from the word go. Du Plessis scored a quick-fire 25 off 13 balls before Chris Morris got him. However, 46 runs were scored by then and even Gaikwad was set after playing a couple of free flowing strokes.
He continued to bat with similar composure in the middle overs and was joined by Ambati Rayudu who made his intentions clear from the first ball. Rayudu also didn’t let any of the RCB bowlers settled dancing down the track to them while playing crisp sweep shots off spinners. The 67-run stand for the second wicket made the result look like a mere formality as the Men in Green (RCB) were never in the game with the ball.
Yuzvendra Chahal castled Rayudu in the 14th over but that dismissal didn’t spark a collapse. MS Dhoni came out to the middle to support Gaikwad who soon got to his maiden IPL half-century. Clearly, both the teams were going through the motions with not much left in the game. Dhoni seemed to be in good touch finally and played some good shots.
CSK reached home in the 19th over of the innings comfortably losing only two wickets handing RCB their fourth defeat of the season. The Virat Kohli-led side are still sitting pretty in the top three and would look to brush off this loss and move forward. For CSK, Gaikwad finally clicked for them to remain unbeaten on 65 while Dhoni played a decent hand of 19*.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
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