The much-awaited 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to commence on March 22 with the blockbuster match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. MS Dhoni will be back in action for the first time, probably for one last time in the cash-rich league. Virat Kohli is also making a comeback having last played in January. But what happened when CSK and RCB last locked horns in the opening game of the season?
Virat Kohli was the captain of RCB in 2019 when CSK and RCB faced in match 1. Even that game was played at the Chepauk and it had turned out to be a pretty low-scoring encounter. Batting first, RCB ha managed to score only 70 runs before getting bowled out in the 18th over of the innings. Only one batter, Parthiv Patel had reached the double-digit mark scoring 29 runs off 35 deliveries. Three CSK spinners - Harbhajan Singh (3/20), Imran Tahir (3/9) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/15) shared eight wickets between them.
In response, even CSK batters struggled to get going and it took 17.4 overs for them to chase down the paltry target of 71 runs. Shane Watson bagged a 10-ball duck while his opening partner mustered 28 runs off 42 deliveries before getting out. It was slow going throughout the game but CSK were ahead right through with not much to chase.
Kedar Jadhav (13* off 19) and Ravindra Jadeja (6* off 15) finished the game as the MS Dhoni-led side won the match with seven wickets in hand. The pitch for the encounter had come under the scanner as all the hype for CSK vs RCB went down once the match got underway. The fans will be hoping for a better surface this time around even as CSK aim to defend their trophy and win the IPL for the record sixth time.
