Moeen Ali’s all-round efforts went in vain as Royal Challengers Bangalore handed Chennai Super Kings their seventh loss of the season. Harshal Patel’s three-wicket haul led CSK to a score of 160 in their pursuit of 174 at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Wednesday.
Du Plessis, Kohli provide good start
Only 44 balls into the RCB innings, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli put on a 62-run partnership for the first wicket. A boundary through deep backward leg got Kohli started, but he had trouble maintaining the pace. Much of the scoring was done by the RCB skipper who paced into his innings smoothly. Mukesh Choudhry was taken apart by RCB’s opener in the fifth over, with a two-and-a-half-over burst that included a six.
When du Plessis’s attempt to track down Moeen Ali failed, the collaboration came to an end. Ravindra Jadeja at deep mid wicket took advantage of his errant cross-batted shot. After cleaning up Kohli with a delivery that went through the space between his bat and pad, Moeen Ali further damaged RCB’s reputation. While Kohli and Maxwell were running together, Maxwell became a victim of miscommunication and ended up being dismissed in the 10th over, leaving the team on 79 for three.
Lomror and Patidar fill in the gaps in the middle of the team.
Two domestic cricketers were responsible for maintaining the pace in the middle overs of a star-studded batting line-up. With a 44-run partnership for the fourth wicket in only 31 balls, Mahipal Lomror and Rajat Patidar kept the innings steady. Took advantage of Maheesh Theekshana in the 15th over, picking him up for 13 runs to put them in command of the game.
Despite this, they were unable to maintain the offensive. Choudhary ended Patidar’s stay with a forward diving catch at deep square leg. Lomror, on the other hand, stayed on the attack and pounded Dwaine Pretorius for 18 in the 18th over.
In the end, there are exploitations
There were no further RCB runs to be made in the penultimate over of the innings because of Theekshana’s 25 in three overs. The spinner took wickets of Lomror and Wanindu Hasaranaga in quick succession before taking the wicket of Shahbaz Ahmed in the final ball of the over. Shahbaz was nabbed by Ruturaj Gaikwad at a distance, while the first two were arrested. To top it all off, he only allowed two runs in his final over.
The following time around, things were different. For his part in helping his team to a 173-run total, Dinesh Karthik unleashed his death over hitting on Pretorius, who he had been watching bat from the other end.
Conway and Ruturaj organized the pursuit.
The Chennai Super Kings didn’t put forth much effort against a relatively easy target in favorable batting conditions. In the first over of the chase, Devon Conway used sweeps and reverse sweeps to effectively counter Shahbaz, but Ruturaj Gaikwad took his time to settle in and establish himself. Mohammad Siraj was bowled out for straight boundaries by Gaikwad in the fifth over. To end the powerplay and avoid a defeat, Conway paced up and pounded Hasaranga for a pair of sixes.
Gaikwad skied a draw off Shahbaz to long on, and the ezra bounce did him in. Glenn Maxwell, who got Robin Uthappa and Ambati Rayudu out in consecutive overs, will benefit from the extra bounce as well.
Moeen joins the fray with a swat of his own.
Moeen Ali, returning to the side, had made an impression with the ball earlier in the day previously. CSK’s run pursuit was also in the hands of the all-rounder. In the 0th over, RCB were reduced to 75 for 3, and the tide had turned in their favor following a half-century opening stand. However, Moeen, alongside Conway ensured that they maintained choosing boundaries every over. Hasaranga had Conway slog-sweep to the deep mid-wicket fielder soon after his half-century as the partnership fought their way through the tough middle over.
That dismissal began another spiral. Even though Ravindra Jadeja narrowly escaped being run out early in the innings, he was unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Soon after, Harshal Patel’s slower delivery foxed him as he skied a ball to Virat Kohli. Harshal also put a stop to Moeen’s threat in his next over. Moeen Ali miscued a delivery wide outside the offstump to the fielder on the inner ring only a ball after hauling the medium pacer for a six.
Chase is a bust.
Regular wickets picked by RCB throughout the last quarter of CSK’s innings, disrupted the chase. Even as the surface improved for batting, CSK’s demise was due to contested shot-making. In the end, the bottom order – without ample batting muscle – was left chasing too much for their satisfaction. Harshal managed to halt CSK from pursuing down the target despite being whacked around a lot in the final over, limiting them to 160 for 8.
Brief Scores:
Mahipal Lomror 42, Faf du Plessis 38; Maheesh Theekshana 3-27, Moen Ali 2-28) helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to 173/8 in 20 overs against Chennai Super Kings (Devon Conway 56, Moeen Ai 34; Harshal Patel 3-25, Glenn Maxwell 2-22) in the Indian Premier League.