Ruturaj Gaikwad couldn’t have asked for a better start as captain of Chennai Super Kings as his side began its title defence in style with a comfortable six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the opening game of IPL-17 at MAC Stadium on Friday.
Chasing 174, CSK powered through to the target, riding on a series of cameos from its batters. Opener Rachin Ravindra set the ball rolling by blasting a quickfire 37 (15b, 3x4, 3x6) before Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, and Ravindra Jadeja chipped in with valuable contributions.
CSK vs RCB Live Score, IPL 2024
Aggressive approach
Though no batter made a half-century, the team’s aggressive approach of looking for boundaries paid off.
Ravindra got Super Kings off to a flyer, smashing the pacers all over the park with some clean hitting. Rahane and Mitchell then kept the tempo up, hitting two sixes each before Cameron Green accounted for the duo in his successive overs to give RCB a sniff of a chance.
But Dube (34 n.o., 28b, 4x4, 1x6) and Jadeja (25 n.o., 17b, 1x6) ensured the Men in Yellow stepped into the post-Dhoni captaincy era on the right note stitching an unbroken 66-run stand for the fifth wicket to take their side to victory.
Earlier in the evening, Mustafizur Rahman (four for 29) set it up for the home team with a crafty spell in his first game for CSK.
Mustafizur broke the back of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s batting to have the visitors in deep trouble at 78 for five. Electing to bat, skipper Faf du Plessis (35, 23b, 8x4) got his side off to a strong start.
But in the fifth over, Mustafizur pulled things back with a twin strike, removing du Plessis caught at deep-point before having Rajat Patidar caught behind.
The left-arm pacer struck twice again to dismiss Virat Kohli and Cameron Green in the space of two balls. A late flourish from Anuj Rawat (48, 25b, 4x6, 3x6) and Dinesh Karthik (38 n.o., 3x4, 2x6) allowed RCB to post a fighting total of 173 for six.
However, it was not enough against the defending champion’s batting firepower.
