A fine half-century by Suresh Raina and great spell by left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra saw Chennai Super Kings overpower Royal Challengers Bangalore by 27 runs last night (Wednesday) to record their fourth win in five matches.
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Former India seamer Nehra, who turns 36 next week, finished with great figures of four for 10 as Bangalore only managed 154 for eight, chasing Super Kings’ total of 181 for eight, despite a fighting innings by skipper Virat Kohli (51 off 42 balls).
Bangalore, who went into the match without Chris Gayle, began their chase poorly as Nehra removed both openers Manvinder Bisla (17) and Rilee Rossouw (14) in his second over.
Bisla was out to an excellent one onehanded catch by Faf du Plessis who ran back and held on to the ball despite landing heavily on his shoulder, while Rossouw had his woodwork rearranged.
Dinesh Karthik (10) and Kohli tried to steady the innings before the former departed as Dwayne Bravo dived forward to take a catch off the bowling of seamer Ishwar Pandey.
Congratulations @ChennaiIPL ! Tough luck @RCBTweets ! pic.twitter.com/8owp0sqNZQ
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 22, 2015
AB de Villiers came in and went after the bowling straightaway but was run out following a mix-up with Kohli as the Royal Challengers slipped to 85 for four in the 12th over.
With the South African’s dismissal, the hosts’ hopes were dashed. Nehra returned for his second spell and grabbed two more wickets to end Bangalore’s challenge.
Earlier, Super Kings posted a competitive total thanks to the efforts of opener Dwayne Smith (39 off 29) and Suresh Raina (62 off 32), while an 18-ball 33 by du Plessis at the end boosted the score.
In the second over of the match, leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Brendon McCullum (4), who cut the bowler straight to Rossouw at point.
The Chennai innings took off in the eighth over as Smith hit South African all-rounder David Wiese for two sixes and a four, but the opener was sent back in the next over, edging seamer Harshal Patel to wicket-keeper Karthik.
Thereafter, Raina cut loose, targeting Chahal smacking him for three consecutive sixes before getting caught while attempting another big hit off the same bowler.
Raina’s dismissal triggered a collapse as Mahendra Singh Dhoni (13) and Ravindra Jadeja (8) were dismissed in quick succession.
But du Plessis ensured Super Kings went past the 180-run mark. Leg-spinner Chahal took the most wickets for Bangalore, bagging three, but conceded 40 runs from his four overs.
Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah ended up with decent figures of two for 36.
Bangalore captain Kohli was lost for words after the defeat, which sent his team to the bottom of the table.
“There’s not much I can say at this point. We’ve really disappointed ourselves more than anyone else and we’ve not really performed as a group. We have to have a talk about it with the team and can’t afford to lose matches like this,” Kohli said.
Another great win. Superb batting by @ImRaina great bowling by Nehra ji n Pandey Keep going bwoysssss #whistlepodu
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 22, 2015
The skipper added that lack of partnerships hurt his team as they kept losing wickets at the wrong time.
“It’s about stringing partnerships. Whenever we started a partnership we lost a wicket. We need to convert 25 to 50 or 70. The guys need to be smarter and set themselves up, especially in Bangalore.”
He, however, was pleased that left-arm quick Mitchell Starc was back in the side and also lauded the bowling of Chahal.
“Having Mitchell back was a big plus. It was also nice to see Chahal bowl well.”
