RCB's miserable run continues as CSK romp home

Raina, Nehra dazzle in Chennai's win

Did Royal Challengers Bangalore err by excluding Chris Gayle (though on his own request)? Yes, if you were to look at Wednesday’s outcome against the Chennai Super Kings and no if you were to go by his batting against the Mumbai Indians on Sunday.

In the absence of the big Jamaican, Royal Challengers missed an enforcer the kind Super Kings had in Suresh Raina (62, 32b, 4x4, 6x6). Thanks to Raina’s blinder, Super Kings ran up a competitive 181/8 after being asked to bat first by the hosts who effected three changes to their side; Mitchell Starc, Harshal Patel and Sarfaraz Khan coming in place of Gayle, Varun Aaron and Abu Nechim.

While the target was stiff, if there was one venue where it could have been chased it was the Chinnaswamy Stadium. After all, teams have successfully chased totals of 180-plus on 10 occasions previously, the highest in any ground in the world. All these portents, however, weren’t good enough for Royal Challengers. Though the start by Manvinder Bisla and Rilee Rossouw was promising, they couldn’t sustain the momentum. Only Virat Kohli came up with a performance worth mentioning (51, 42b, 4x4, 2x6) and once he got out in the 17th over, it was just a formality.

Ashish Nehra (4/10) was the star performer with the ball. The Challengers had no answer for the wily bowler whose clever mix of deliveries threw their chase out of gear. The left-arm quick took two wickets up front and then came back to dismiss Kohli and Harshal Patel off successive balls as Challengers finished at 154/8 to suffer a 27-run defeat for their third consecutive loss here on Wednesday.

Gayle may send shivers down bowlers’ spine but there is no batsman in the short history of IPL that has been as exciting as Raina. The nonchalance with which he pulls off six after six and one bigger than the other is mesmerising. MS Dhoni, despite his indifferent form in recent times, may still be finest finisher of the game but there is no better enforcer than Raina. Dwayne Smith did offset the early dismissal of Brendon McCullum with quickfire 39 (29b, 3x4, 3x6) but it was Raina's blistering assault that propelled CSK to a daunting total despite wickets tumbling at regular intervals.

The southpaw began with a lofted four, somewhat miscued, off Yuzvendra Chahal (3/40) and ended with the same flourish. Chahal did see the back of Raina but not before the batsman had carted him for three consecutive sixes. The IPL’s most prolific scorer, who brought up his fifty in 29 balls, was involved in two half-century partnership that formed the basis for CSK’s big total. While Smith scored the bulk of runs in the 58-run (42b) association for the second wicket, Raina was the dominant partner in his 54-run (24b) stand with Dhoni for the third wicket.

Mitchell Starc (4-0-26-1) did make a difference with an overall tidy bowling but David Wiese had an off day. Every time Challengers appeared like restricting CSK below 170, the boundary balls released the pressure. While it was markedly improved bowling performance, against a versatile attack of CSK they should have conceded a less amount of runs to chase the target. They did well to neutralise Dhoni’s effect but Faf du Plessis, who was surprisingly sent behind Ravindra Jadeja, produced an unbeaten 18-ball-33 (4x4, 1x6) to bolster the score despite Starc giving away just four runs off the final over.