Win to begin! It's the way CSK went yet again

In a dry track, Which turned more than expected and looked as if it was a Day night test track, Royal Challenges Bangalore crumbled to 70 all out in 17.1 overs in the opening night of IPL 12.

This also means that RCB have their name against not only the lowest ever IPL total (49) so far ,They also have equaled their own effort for the joint sixth total (70) by leveling the score they got versus Rajasthan Royals at Abu Dhabi in 2014 , In an innings which lasted for even lesser number of overs (15) . 

While Parthiv Patel carried the bat with a 35 ball 29 with 2 fours, The next 2 joint scores read 9 (Off 8 balls with a six by Moeen Ali and off 10 balls by De Villiers ). Although ABD was dropped by Tahir off Harbhajan's bowling, ABD got caught by Jadeja for attempting a sweep shot in the very next ball.

Kohli, Despite being there till the 21st ball of the innings, Got out after a troubled knock, A 12 ball six, Without any boundary. Three runs through leg byes and a no-ball contributed to the score as well.In the 17.1 Overs bowled by CSK, Spinners bowled as much as 13 overs, With a distribution between Harbhajan, Jadeja, and Tahir bowling 4 overs each and Suresh Raina bowling his only over for the day.

Tahir gave away just 9 runs to pick up 3 wickets in his quota of overs; A spell which had a maiden over and a total of 18 dot balls, Harbhajan gave 20 runs to Pick up the same number of wickets. Jadeja also bowled a maiden over in his spell and he gave away 15 runs and picked up 2 wickets. 

In the pacers, Chahar completed his economical as well as wicketless spell by conceding just 17 runs! Dwayne Bravo bowled his only delivery of the day to pick up the final wicket of RCB. Chasing a double-digit total on an extremely tricky track, The first over of CSK's innings became a maiden bowled by Chahal. Watson was dismissed without scoring in the first ball of the third over, As he got out bowled to Chahal. The first 6 overs yielded just 16 runs.

At the point of 8.5 overs, When team's score was 36 and Raina has his 15th run, He became the first player to touch the milestone of 5000 runs in IPL. In his 17. Virat Kohli stands close second with 4954 runs. Soon after this, Raina lofted a Moeen Ali delivery and got caught by Shivam Dube to settle with a 21 ball 19, A knock which had 3 fours.

At the point 14.2 overs When CSK lost Rayudu who got out bowled to Umesh Yadav after scoring a 42 ball 28 which had two fours and a six, The team score was already 59 then and it was too late for RCB to Pick up wickets as their total was not just below par, But was not even competitive in nature either .

At last, CSK completed the formalities by reaching the target of 71 runs to emerge victorious comfortably by a 7 wicket margin, With 14 balls to spare. Kedhar Jadhav (13* off 19 with one four ) & Ravindra Jadeja 6*(15) were at the wicket to seal it for the defending champions. 

CSK has now won their first games of two consecutive seasons (They were tournament openers as well). Last year it was one-wicket win off the last ball against Mumbai Indians at Mumbai that began proceedings for the men in yellow  chasing a total of 165/4! Come 2019, CSK has started the tournament by defeating another fierce rival team RCB handsomely in a tricky chase. Even 40 or 50 more runs to the total of RCB would have even changed the result of the match altogether. 

Chahal's 4-1-6-1 (18 dots ) is the spell with the least number of runs conceded in an IPL match played in India.

Harbhajan Singh won the man of the match.

CSK's next will be their first away game of this season, At Delhi against the Delhi capitals on Tuesday, 26th March.

Toss: CSK opt to bowl

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Parthiv Patel(w), Virat Kohli(c), Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube, Colin de Grandhomme, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini

- Kumaran Kumanan

Photo Credits: iplt20.com