The first match of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League turned out to be a walk in the park for Chennai Super Kings as the registered a comfortable -wicket win in Chennai on Saturday.
Harbhajan Singh rocked the top-order with a three-wicket burst as CSK shot out Royal Challengers Bangalore for a paltry 70 in 17.1 overs in the opening encounter.
With this win, Chennai extended their winning run against RCB to seven matches on the trot.
Spin to win for CSK
On a slow Chepauk turner, Harbhajan opened the bowling with Deepak Chahar. The senior off-spinner rolled back years with figures of 3/20 in his four-over spell that deflated RCB completely.
Once Harbhajan was done with his spell, Imran Tahir (3/9 in 3 overs) tormented RCB even more with his traditional leg-breaks mixed up with his googlies to kill the contest in the first half. With so much assistance for spinners, Ravindra Jadeja wasn’t going to be left behind, finishing with 2/15 in 4 overs.
Dhoni’s inspired move to, first select Harbhajan and then open the bowling with him, paid dividends as he removed rival skipper Kohli (6) in the fourth over and RCB never recovered from that early blow.
Having gauged the pace of the pitch, Harbhajan altered the length of his deliveries effectively and also reduced the pace to trouble the batsmen. While he was lucky as his off-break dropped short but Kohli’s mistimed pull-shot was taken by Jadeja at mid-wicket boundary.
Moeen Ali slog swept Harbhajan for a six but that was all that he could manage with a length delivery stopping on him as he tried to check his drive and loopy return catch was gleefully accepted. AB de Villiers (9) wanted to hit out of trouble and was first dropped by Imran Tahir but off the very next ball was caught by Jadeja at mid-wicket boundary. With Shimron Hetmyer (0) getting run-out needlessly, RCB were in the dumps even before halfway stage.
It was the perfect platform for Tahir and Jadeja, who looked unplayable with the pitch offering reasonable turn and the lower-order stood no chance to post a decent total. It was Parthiv Patel, opening the batting with Kohli, who top-scored with 29 and was the last man to be dismissed for RCB.
Cruise for Chennai
The chase was off to a stuttering start for the hosts as Shane Watson was dismissed for a 10-ball duck by Yuzvendra Chahal in the third over of the match. Suresh Raina joined Ambati Rayudu in the middle as the duo decided to play out
Raina, in the course of his 21-ball 19, became the first man to score 5,000 runs in the IPL. Once the powerplay was over, with the scoreboard reading 16/1 then, CSK got a move on. The defending champions took their own sweet time as Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav eventually scored the winning runs in the 18th over.
“I don’t think either team could have enjoyed that kind of a pitch. It was a scrappy start to the league but it is what it is. We should have done better with the bat. CSK played much better than us,” Kohli said after the match.
Dhoni agreed with Kohli’s assessment of the pitch.
“We played a practice game on this wicket, it did not turn that match. If the wicket stays like this, it will be bad for us also. Definitely want the pitch to get better,” the CSK captain said.
(With PTI inputs)
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