SHARJAH, CMC – West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo earned the Player-of-the-Match award for a match-changing spell helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League yesterday.
Bravo took 3-24 and RCB suffered a batting meltdown and were restricted to 156 for six after they were put into bat following a sandstorm, which delayed the start of play at the Sharjah International Cricket Stadium.
CSK chased down the target in 18.1 overs with six wickets in hand and pocketed two more points to move back to the top of the eight-team table.
Devdutt Padikkal led the way with 70 from 50 balls and fellow opener Virat Kohli scored 53 from 41 balls, and RCB were comfortably placed on 111 without loss after 13 overs.
Bravo made the breakthrough, when he dismissed Kohli to a fine catch in the deep from Ravindra Jadeja and no other RCB batsman could match the flow of their opening pair.
CSK opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis set the tone for their side’s chase with a stand of 71.
Gaikwad fell to a stunning catch by Kohli off Yuzvendra Chahal and Glenn Maxwell dismissed du Plessis in the next over.
Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu then joined forces and put on a quick-fire 47-run stand to get CSK back on track, but they were dismissed either side of the strategic time out to slow things down.
Suresh Raina and skipper MS Dhoni then shared an unbroken 24-run stand and took CSK home.
