CHENNAI: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have broken the Chepauk jinx, and how! When they last beat mighty neighbours Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Rahul Dravid was still their captain. The only RCB player who was part of that 2008 squad and is still playing is Virat Kohli, and his face at the end of the 50-run rout said it all.
At the other end of the spectrum were the shocked faces of those 34,000-odd CSK diehards, who are not exactly used to a humiliation of this magnitude in their own den. To add salt to CSK’s wounds, RCB had a forward short-leg and a slip in place in the 16th over when MS Dhoni finally came out to bat at No. 9.
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So many things must have felt so different for all those who have been turning up regularly at the Chepauk over the last 17 years. Adding to the list of ‘new’ was the ‘method’ in the RCB approach that had been missing from their game for so long.
For years, an element of mindlessness had characterized their game, but on Friday night the RCB batters stuck to a plan and didn’t lose their heads.
In a chase of 197, CSK lost two quick wickets to Josh Hazlewood early on and from there on, severely lacked the firepower to make a match of it. There was zero intent in the CSK approach and the defeat is an early reminder for them that old-school T20 cricket that they are still trying to recreate might have passed its sell-by date.
This was their biggest-ever defeat at home. Before all that, RCB’s batters gave their bowlers a sound platform.
With a batting lineup as deep as theirs, where Tim David comes at No. 7, the plan was to have at least one Indian batter who is good at playing spin at one end throughout the innings. While it was Virat Kohli (31 off 30 balls) in the beginning with Phil Salt (32 off 16) doing the heavy lifting, the back-end was left to skipper Rajat Patidar.
Given a life early on when Deepak Hooda dropped him at long-off, Patidar (51 off 32 balls) showed why he is so highly rated. There’s a natural elegance about his game. The right-hander plays spin with ease and there’s an ability to generate power.
All these attributes were on display against a CSK attack that could have easily restricted a lesser batting lineup, but Patidar ensured that didn’t happen.
