Chennai Super Kings kick off their title defence with a dominant six-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the opening match of the Indian Premier League 2024 on Friday.
New CSK signing Mustafizur Rahman took four big wickets to restrict RCB to 173/6 at MA Chidambaram Stadium and then impressive knocks from Rachin Ravindra and Shivam Dube helped the champions chase the target with eight balls remaining.
Faf du Plessis won the crucial toss and elected to bat first with Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar and Yash Dayal making their RCB debuts. Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings also handed highly-anticipated IPL debuts to Sameer Rizvi and Rachin Ravindra.
RCB were off to an excellent start with Faf and Virat Kohli adding 41 runs for the opening wicket. But Mustafizur changed the momentum in the fifth over with the wickets of Faf and Rajat Patidar. Then Deepak Chahar dismissed Glenn Maxwell on a golden duck in the next over to stumble RCB to 42/3 in the powerplay.
Kohli scored crucial 21 runs and new signing Green added 18 runs in the middle overs but it was a 95-run stand between wicketkeeper batters Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik that boosted RCB to a challenging total.
Chasing a tough target, new leader Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed two fours in the first over and then Rachin Ravindra dominated the powerplay with an explosive knock. Yash Dayal dismissed Ruturaj who scored 15 runs while Rachin made an impact on his debut by smashing 37 runs off just 15 balls with the help of there sixes and three fours.
Chennai kept the momentum by their side with Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell also scoring small but crucial innings in the middle overs. Green shone for RCB with a ball with wickets of Rahane and Mitchell but Shivam Dube, who came as an substitute, and Ravindra Jadeja added 66* runs for the fifth wicket to ensure an easy chase for CSK.
Chennai Super Kings Playing XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni (wk), Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana, Mustafizur Rahman (substituted by Shivam Dube), Tushar Deshpande.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Playing XI: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (substituted by Yash Dayal), Anuj Rawat (wk), Karn Sharma, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj.
