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Chennai spinners set up comprehensive victory

cricket23 March 2019 17:45| © MWP
By:Fanie Heyns
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Imran Tahir (L) © @IPL (Twitter)

A magnificent spell of off-spin bowling by Harbhajan Singh, supported by 3-9 from Imran Tahir, wrecked the top- and middle-order of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and limited them to 70, while a composed Ambati Rayudu struck a solid 28 to propel the Chennai Super Kings to an emphatic seven-wicket win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday evening.

Full Scorecard

Singh captured 3-20, which included two world-class batsmen, Virat Kohli (6) and AB de Villiers (9), both caught at deep midwicket. He also accounted for Moeen Ali when he caught him off his own bowling.

Tahir rocked the middle-order by using his googly well and Ravindra Jadeja spun the ball prodigiously to finish with 2-15. Only Parthiv Patel, with 29 off 35 balls, got double figures.

In the Chennai innings, Rayudu and Suresh Raina treated the attack with relative ease as they were only confronted with two spinners and the fast bowlers did not thrive sufficiently on a slow bowlers' wicket.

Chennai finished their chase in 17.5 overs when they reached 71 for three.

Yuzvendra Chahal took 1-6 in four overs and his fellow spinner Moeen Ali finished with 1-19.

Rayudu hit Navdeep Saini for a straight six to get going.

Shane Watson was bowled by the legspinner Chahal for a duck when he attempted an ambitious sweep shot and CSK slipped to eight for one.

Rayudu was dropped on eight by Umesh Yadav at deep midwicket in Moeen first over.

CSK had 14 for one after five overs.

Raina broke the shackles against the spin of Ali by using his feet and hitting him to long-off for four, followed by a slog sweep for a boundary at deep midwicket. With that flurry, he powered Chennai to 33 for one.

Raina was caught at long-off by Shive Dube off Ali in the English offspinners' next over for 19.

But RCB did not have sufficient slow bowling resources to pressurise Chennai into fatal mistakes on a turning track.

Rayudu struck an excellent extra cover drive off Saini to move Chennai to 51 for two.

Mohammed Siraj bowled Rayudu for 28 to restrict Chennai to 59 for three.

Kedar Yadhav and Jadeja saw them home with relative ease against the fast bowlers.

In the RCB innings, Shimron Hetmyer was run out in the same over in which De Villiers departed – the eighth – and Harbhajan concluded his spell with RCB already in deep misery on 39 for four.

Thereafter, Tahir used his googly masterfully to take three wickets. He had Dube and Saini caught at first slip by Watson.

The dry and slow conditions were tailor made for the three spinners who all turned the ball appreciably.

Jadeja had Colin de Grandhomme caught behind by Dhoni and bowled Umesh Jadav.


CHENNAI SUPER KING: Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli (capt), Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube, Colin de Grandhomme, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini

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