[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Chennai Super Kings romped home by eight wickets while chasing the 155-run target set by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Fuelled by Faf du Plessis (54*) and MS Dhoni’s (49*) timely knocks, the men in yellow did not flinch during the very fluent run-chase. While CSK have already qualified for the Pepsi IPL 2014 Playoffs, this sizable win would definitely help their net run-rate as the second spot in the league standings is still up for grabs.
Earlier, CSK asked RCB to bat first and dealt an early blow as Ashish Nehra cleaned up Rilee Rossouw in the first over. While Yogesh Takawale and Vijay Zol tried to stabilise the innings, they also had to return to the dugout after making brief contributions. Ashwin trapped Takawale (19) leg-before in the fifth over, Zol (13) was dismissed by Mohit Sharma just before the powerplay ended, leaving RCB on 34 for three in 5.4 overs.
Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh then came together and took their team’s score to 56 at the halfway stage. The pair then stepped on the pedal and went after any loose offerings from the CSK bowlers while also picking regular singles and twos. However, Yuvraj (25) fell prey to Jadeja in the 14th over. AB de Villiers then paired up with his skipper, and thanks to their efforts, the RCB 100 came up in the 15th over of the innings, thereby setting a decent platform for both set batsmen to launch off.
They continued scoring at a fair clip in an attempt to set CSK a challenging total .In fact, Kohli even brought up his half-century with a four off Ashwin in the 17th over. He lost de Villiers’ company in the next over as Nehra returned to clean up the South African batsman in the next over. Sachin Rana (5*) then came to bat with the scorecard reading 130 for five in 17.4 overs. He held up one end as Kohli (73) piled on the runs at the other. However, the RCB captain was dismissed in the final over by Nehra, as RCB scored 154 for six in their 20 overs.
Dwayne Smith and Faf du Plessis then gave CSK a flying start. After a relatively quiet first over, the dashing duo plundered 15, 15 and 18 runs off the second, third and fourth overs respectively. In the process they also took their team past the 50-run mark.
