Finance
At the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday, pacer Mustafizur Rahman claimed the first four-fer of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as he assisted Chennai Super Kings and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad in making a winning start to the competition by defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets with eight balls remaining.
In his first game for CSK, Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur was outstanding. He made good use of the conditions, changed up the speed, mixed up the slow balls, and annihilated the middle order of the RCB for a stunning 4-29 in four overs.
After Mustafizur’s 4-29 helped them restrict RCB to 173/6 despite a superb rearguard partnership of 95 between Anuj Rawat (48) and Dinesh Karthik (38 not out), Chennai made a poor start and lost a couple of wickets in the middle before cameos by Ajinkya Rahane (27), Daryll Mitchell (22), Shivam Dube (34 not out) and Ravindra Jadeja (25 not out) as CSK reached 176/4 in 18.4 overs, winning the match with a bit of fuel in the tank.
This was CSK’s eighth successive win over RCB at the Chepauk Stadium with RCB’s last win over CSK at this venue coming over a decade back.
CSK’s new skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra could manage only 38 runs for the opening wicket on a pitch that became slow as the day progressed.
Gaikwad was out for a run-a-ball 15, caught on the second attempt by Cameron Green at first slip off Yash Dayal. Ravindra was in blazing form as he hammered 37 off 15 balls, hitting three boundaries and as many sixes. But he was out just when he was looking good for a big one, going for a shot too much and holing out to Rajat Patidar off Karn Sharma — CSK were 71/2 in the 7th over.
CSK was in the lead thanks to Ajinkya Rahane and Mitchell, but once they were removed, they were down 110/4 but still in the running. CSK won because to an unbroken 66-run partnership between Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja.
Chennai gave captain Ruturaj Gaikwad a winning start when Jadeja blasted 1 17-ball 25 not out studded with just one six. Dube scored 34 off 28, striking four boundaries and capping the victory with a six.
Cameron Green took two wickets in three overs for RCB, but their bowling was not sharp enough to get through the CSK batting lineup.
Earlier, RCB got off to a quick start, faltered in the middle, and then ended well to score 173/6 in 20 overs, mostly because of a superb rearguard innings by Aunj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik, who added 95 runs for the sixth wicket partnership.
The brisk start was provided by skipper Faf du Plessis and the stumble was courtesy of the early dismissal of Virat Kohli (21), Rajat Patidar (0), Glenn Maxwell (0) Cameroon Green (18) and RCB slumped to 78/5 in the 12th over as Mustafizur Rahman knocked off three of those wickets, and Anuj Rawat (48) and Dinesh Karthik (38 not out) provided the final flourish as RCB reached a decent total in their opening match.
Skipper Faf du Plessis hammered eight fours in scoring a 23-ball 35 and with Virat Kohli going slow, they reached 41 in the fifth over. Faf waded into Deepak Chahar in the third over, hitting him for 17 runs including three fours, two of them off successive balls. He fell in the fifth over, hitting uppishly to Rachin Ravindra off Mustafizur Rahman, who was making his CSK debut on Friday.
Mustafizur struck again two balls later when Rajat Patidar nicked on behind to M.S Dhoni, beaten for pace. Glenn Maxwell was out for a duck edging behind off Charar and when Virat Kohli and Cameron Green (18) fell off the third and sixth delivery of the 12th over bowled by Mustafizur, RCB were in trouble at 78/5 and looking like they may struggle to reach 120.
However, Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik had other ideas as they combined to blast 95 runs in the sixth wicket partnership as RCB hammered 84 runs off the last five over the match.
Rawat began the game cautiously, making most of his runs on singles. However, he quickly picked up speed, smashing Tushar Deshpande for three sixes in the 18th over, including one over the bowler’s head, one over midwicket, and one flat six over long-on. He also hit a four off a slow bouncer. He hit Mustafizur for a six and four in the following over. Deshpande produced a magnificent final over, conceding just nine runs, and ended up having the last laugh when Dhoni ran Rawat out with the last ball of the match.
As he remained unbeaten on 38 off 25 balls, Karthik hit three boundaries and two sixes, demonstrating his ability to provide a useful counterbalance to his inexperienced batting partner. Although RCB was able to reached a decent total, it will still be 20 runs short of troubling CSK in their den.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 173/6 in 20 overs (Anuj Rawat 48, Dinesh Karthik 38 not out, Faf du Plessis 35; Mustafizur Rahman 4-29) lose to Chennai Super Kings 176/4 in 18.4 overs (Rachin Ravindra 37, Shivam Dube 34 not out, Ajinkya Rahane 27; Cameron Green 2-27) by six wickets.
Source:IANS
