Mehul Bhattacharya: The Chennai Super Kings cruised to victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 69 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) today. The game saw CSK’s Ravindra Jadeja play a pivotal role, both with the bat and the ball, in a scintillating display which saw Chennai easily defend their total of 191.
The first innings started off at quite the rapid pace, with Gaikwad and du Plessis playing some wonderful shots, and Chennai relatively breezed through the powerplay. The middle overs were what posed a challenge though, as has been the case in several IPL games this year, with Gaikwad being dismissed by Chahal, followed by du Plessis and Raina a while later, and then Rayudu, all of whom were scalped by Harshal Patel. Chennai looked to be posting a sub-par total, as they moved into the last over in the 150s. A brilliant batting performance from Jadeja, who ended his innings on 62 off 28 changed that, as Harshal Patel went for a record 37 runs in the last over, bringing Chennai’s total to 191/4.
The second innings also started in similar fashion, as Devdutt Padikkal looked to be in brilliant form, hitting it all around the park. It looked to be a good start for Bangalore, but then, a brilliant over from Sam Curran saw Virat Kohli lose his wicket. To the surprise of quite a few people, Washington Sundar walked out at 1 down, but he soon threw his wicket to Jadeja. This started off a procession of wickets, as Maxwell, De Villiers and co all departed soon enough, be it via a mistake of their own, or via brilliant fielding from Chennai. The game was all but over once de Villiers was dismissed, as batsmen walked in to face the bowlers and were swiftly sent right back to the pavilion. Some resilient batting from Chahal and Siraj meant that RCB preserved their last wicket, ending the innings with a score of 122/9, 69 runs less than what Chennai managed.