Chennai Super Kings did ‘CSK things’ and Royal Challengers Bengaluru did ‘RCB things’ as the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicked off in grand fashion at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
Chasing a middling 174, Rachin Ravindra stepped into the breach of his injured Kiwi teammate Devon Conway with a chancy but brisk 15-ball 37 that grew in conviction.
Starting off with a four off a bottom edge and then a top-edge off a pull shot that sailed for a six, Ravindra stamped his authority with two imperious pulls before he swept straight into the hands of deep square-leg.
Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell’s breezy twenties were cut short by two short deliveries by Cameron Green, but if RCB sensed a comeback with the fall of those two wickets, Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja decisively shut the door on it as CSK extended its unbeaten run at Chepauk against the Bengaluru side with a six-wicket win.
CSK’s Rachin Ravindra plays a shot. | Photo Credit: VEDHAN M/ The Hindu
The maxim ‘old habits die hard’ received a rousing endorsement at the innings break, as CSK and RCB learnt it would need more than a leadership change or a rebranding exercise to shake off some things from the past.
CSK isn’t known for thriving on a world-class pace battery but can hold its own with its crafty use of limited resources. It has also developed a reputation of bringing out the best from players who haven’t found overwhelming success with other franchises. It wasn’t too much of a surprise that, after juggling four teams across six seasons in the IPL, Mustafizur Rahman produced his best figures in the league on his debut for CSK, curtailing RCB’s top-order might in a single over.
Rahman made two inroads in his first over in the yellow jersey, outwitting Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar with his variations. Du Plessis, who was in imperious touch on the off-side, sliced a slower one to deep point, where Ravindra took a tidy catch diving forward, while Patidar fetched a wobble-seam delivery only to edge it behind to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
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The two quick wickets came after Du Plessis laid into Deepak Chahar’s second over with four boundaries, preying on the full-length deliveries with uppish drives and then punishing the shorter stuff with a slap over cover and a pull to the square-leg fence. From the other end, Tushar Deshpande missed his lines early, and the RCB skipper capitalised with two fours off one over, taking his side to 33 in three overs, with Virat Kohli having faced one ball.
However, once Chahar made amends by nicking off Glenn Maxwell for a golden duck after Rahman’s double blow, RCB found itself in familiar territory with its vaunted top order blown away.
Kohli, whose first and only boundary in the match came in the 10th over, when Maheesh Theekshana dropped one short, staged a brief resistance with Green, adding 35 runs off as many balls as CSK exerted its routine spin stranglehold with Jadeja and Theekshana wheeling away from both ends.
Rahman’s second over snapped the monotony, as Kohli fell to a stupendous relay catch that involved Rahane and Ravindra in the square-leg region while Green paid the price for cutting too late while exposing his stumps.
But Matheesha Pathirana’s injury came to haunt CSK at the death, with Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik’s 95-run partnership off 50 balls hauling RCB to a serviceable 173.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Dinesh Karthik and Anuj Rawat in action. | Photo Credit: PTI
Rahman and Deshpande leaked 57 runs in the last four overs between them, as predictability and poor execution cost them. Deshpande’s inability to land the yorkers or the bouncers effectively saw him going for 25 runs off the 18th over.
Another familiar sight ended RCB’s innings as Dhoni effortlessly hit the stumps off the final delivery as the crowd erupted in jubilation.
With Dhoni also assisting Ruturaj Gaikwad, stationed at mid-off, and fine-tuning the field placements in the deep that resulted in the downfall of Du Plessis and Kohli, there was plenty of CSK of the old even in the new era.
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