RCB beat CSK: Chennai’s 11-ball slow choke by spinners and Dhoni’s 110m six goes high, but doesn’t take CSK far

Nail-biting overs like these 📈

Describe your final over emotions with an emoji 🔽

Recap the match on @StarSportsIndia and @JioCinema 💻📱#TATAIPL | #RCBvCSK pic.twitter.com/XYVYvXfton

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 18, 2024

Six-machine Virat

With a ball that was around his hip area, Virat Kohli flicked his wrists and sent the ball soaring into the M Chinnaswamy sky. The ball hit onto the roof of the stadium and fell near the ball kid near the boundary line. He picked up the length so early as Tushar Deshpande erred. A dot ball later, he danced down the track a little bit and targetted the same region off a short of length ball. Another flick of the wrists. With those two sixes, Kohli’s tally for the 2024 season went up to… wait for it… 35! In IPL 2023, he had hit 16 sixes, for a comparison. Kohli has often spoken about how he is a four-hitter predominantly, and sixes are byproducts of good timing mostly. But this season, he has taken it to the next level. So much has been said about Nicholas Pooran, Abshishek Sharma, Travis Head and Sunil Narine hitting sixes. With two more slog sweep sixes later on, Kohli finished the night ahead of all of them (37 sixes).

Aaarrr Ceeee Beeee ❤️👏

6️⃣ in a row for Royal Challengers Bengaluru ❤️

They make a thumping entry into the #TATAIPL 2024 Playoffs 👊

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/7RQR7B2jpC#RCBvCSK | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/otq5KjUMXy

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 18, 2024

Barest of margins

Ian Smith’s famous lines on that famous day at Lord’s remain iconic. “By the barest of margins” he screamed into the microphone as a crazy finish to the World Cup final unfolded and Kiwi hearts were broken. On Saturday in Bengaluru, a New Zealander was on the good side of ‘the barest of margins’ in cricket. Mitchell Santner bowled a full ball just outside of offstump, Rajat Patidar smashed one down the ground. Santner, a gun fielder apart from being a really good bowler, quickly got down and deflected the ball onto the stumps (after multiple replays you can’t help but imagine it was deliberate too). The ball hit the stumps but initially it seemed Faf du Plessis had made it back on time at the non-striker’s. But after multiple replays, and zoom-ins, the TV umpire decided the bat was in the air. Faf was stunned, the RCB dressing room had their arms up in the air, some of the fans couldn’t believe it. A huge call, one that divided opinion but the umpire took his time to make it.

Post-rain, a crawl

31 for no loss in the first three overs and then a crawl post the rain break — 11 in three overs. The ball wasn’t wet so the spinners Maheesh Theekshana and Mitchell Santner didn’t have problems gripping the ball. But the pitch, under covers for more than half an hour, was helping the ball to grip and turn. And there was a hint of it suddenly becoming two-paced. A data graphic during telecast said the average turn was 3.4 degrees as compared to 1.9 during the tournament. Both Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis, after going hammer and tongs against the pacers before the break, looked like fish out of water. Swishing without connecting. They were in poor positions because they were unsure how much the ball would turn. They also tried to hit too hard in an attempt to break the shackles. Slow choke is an old CSK strategy that has worked for them on their home ground and their spinners knew exactly what to do. 11 dots between the start of the fourth over and end of the sixth with just one boundary.

Toss no solace

For all the tosses he has lost this season, Ruturaj Gaikwad managed to get it right on the big day, only for the third time. With rain around, with M Chinnaswamy being a chasing ground, bowling first is bound to be a solid advantage in this blockbuster clash. Stephen Fleming had joked a few matches back about how the team even considered sending someone alongside Ruturaj to change his luck. Interestingly though, that day when he won the toss against Gujarat Titans and opted to bowl first, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan made CSK chase leather in a 210-run opening run partnership. Unfortunately on Saturday, the toss was pretty much the only thing that went Rutu’s way.

Faf’s stunner

And finally, we will leave with you this stunning effort from 39-year-old Faf du Plessis that brought all the emotions out of the RCB squad. As Rohan Bopanna would say, not age 39 but Level 39.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓. 𝐓𝐇𝐄. 𝐅𝐀𝐅. 🤯#TATAIPL #RCBvCSK #IPLonJioCinema pic.twitter.com/GWuERdGUCL

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 18, 2024