Chennai Super Kings extended their winning run to four games after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 69 runs at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Ravindra Jadeja was the star man with the bat, ball, and in the field to help CSK to register this convincing win against RCB in IPL 2021.
RCB got off to a flying start while chasing 192 as Devdutt Padikkal hit a flurry of boundaries. However, Sam Curran bounced back after an expensive first over to dismiss Virat Kohli. Padikkal also got dismissed in the powerplay while playing a pull shot. Jadeja came back to bowl after the powerplay to pick big wickets of Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, and Washington Sundar. He also effected a run-out as RCB folded for 122 runs.
After winning the toss, MS Dhoni decided to bat. The men in yellow enjoyed a brilliant start to innings as Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis played some majestic strokes to score 51 runs in the powerplay. After the powerplay, Chennai Super Kings did lose Gaikwad, but Suresh Raina kept the momentum by hitting two huge sixes.
Just when CSK was looking to go into the next gear, Harshal Patel came back and dismissed both set batsmen to peg back batting side. Ravindra Jadeja was dropped on zero by Dan Christian, but Ambati Rayudu was on his way back to the pavilion after hitting a couple of boundaries.
CSK looked destined to get at most 170. However, five sixes and one boundary from Jadeja in the final over against Patel meant that CSK got a remarkable total of 191 runs. Going into the innings break with such momentum meant that RCB was always behind the game and eventually collapsed in the chase. Courtesy of this win, CSK further improved their net run rate and moved to the top of the table, while RCB slipped to the second position after suffering the first defeat in IPL 2021.
Scorecard
Chennai Super Kings: 191/4 (Ravindra Jadeja 62(28), Faf du Plessis 50(41), Harshal Patel (3/51), Yuzvendra Chahal (1/24))
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 122/9 (Devdutt Padikkal 34(15), Glenn Maxwell 22(15), Ravindra Jadeja (3/13), Imran Tahir (2/16))