Bangalore: Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their miniscule chances of progressing to the VIVO IPL 2019 Playoffs alive after they defeated table-toppers Chennai Super Kings by a solitary run in Match 39 played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. After posting 161-7 batting first, the hosts restricted CSK to 160-8.
Put into bat, RCB rode on opener Parthiv Patel’s 53 and cameos from several of their middle order batsmen to post a competitive total. AB de Villiers (25 from 19 balls), Akshdeep Nath (24 from 20 balls) and Moeen Ali (26 from 16 balls) made useful contributions to RCB’s total.
In the second half, Dale Steyn struck twice – off consecutive deliveries – in the first over to push the visitors’ on the backfoot. However, the CSK captain MS Dhoni gave life to the chase with an audacious 84 not out that almost did the job for his team. CSK, who needed 26 off the final over bowled by Umesh Yadav, managed 24 runs off the first five deliveries – courtesy Dhoni’s 4,6,6,2,6 – before Shardul Thakur was run out at the striker’s end attempting to steal a bye that would have levelled the scores and sent the match into the Super Over.
Standout batting performance
One of the two standout batting performances in the match was that of Parthiv Patel, who anchored the RCB innings with a mature half-century. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored 53 from 37 balls before he was dismissed in the sixteenth over; the diminutive batsman was busy at the crease, scoring several of his runs through singles, but every now and then collected boundaries. He was involved in two useful partnerships of 47 with AB de Villiers for the second wicket and 41 runs with Akshdeep Nath for the third wicket. Parthiv, who favoured the leg-side and collected more than 75 per cent of his runs on that side of the ground, hit four sixes and two fours.
The Chennai Super Kings’ run-chase was all about one man: MS Dhoni. After CSK had slumped to 28 for 4, it needed a superlative effort to chase down the runs, and the skipper almost did that. Dhoni scored 84 from 48 balls; his knock was studded with five fours and seven sixes. He first resurrected the innings with a 55-run partnership with Ambati Rayudu – in which both partners contributed evenly. Thereafter, he dominated the RCB bowlers, scoring 58 from 26 balls to take his team to within one stroke away.
Standout bowling performance
Deepak Chahar (2-25) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-29) were CSK’s two best bowlers; Chahar dismissed the RCB captain Virat Kohli with a perfect outswinger and then added the wicket of Pawan Negi to his tally, while Jadeja collected the wickets of AB de Villiers and Akshdeep Nath.
Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 161-7 (Parthiv Patel 53) defeated
Chennai Super Kings: 160-8 (MS Dhoni 84*) by 1 run.
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