Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first. Finch and Padikkal got them off to a positive start as Deepak Chahar was leaking boundaries right from the beginning. Finch continued his approach of dancing down the track to tackle the incoming delivery, but perished to Curran in the 4th over. At the end of powerplay, the score read 46-1. Santner came to ball the 7th over and Padikkal eyes lit up after seeing a left arm spinner. The result was a wicket as his loft could go as long as long-on only, where Faf threw the ball to Gaikwad after losing balance to complete the catch.
The pair of AB and Kohli then combined to work the ball around for ones and twos, as a result of which the run rate suffered, as only two boundaries came in the next seven overs. CSK spinners were getting some grip and kept the run flow in check. From the 14th over, both the batsmen made a conscious effort to go for the big hits, and were able to get a boundary per over on an average. Chahar picked up the big wicket of de Villiers in the 18th over and the onus was on Kohli then to give his side a respectable total to defend. He got out just after getting to his fifty at the hands of Curran, who also picked up Moeen Ali. Chahar bowled a fine last over which meant that RCB could reach only 145.
Though the target wasn’t challenging, such has been the confidence of CSK that RCB would have backed themselves to defend this. The start from CSK was a great one though with Faf not holding back and attacking the RCB pacers from the word go. He played a quickfire cameo of 25 from 13 before Morris got rid of him. Rituraj Gaikwad, who had two ducks before this match, was looking in sublime touch as he played some classy shots, with one of them being a lofted six down the ground against Moeen. Rayudu played some attacking brand of cricket as he was severe on Saini and Siraj, and hit the occasional boundary against the spinners.
CSK had reached 111-1 at the end of 13 overs, and were cruising along before Chahal gave them a bit of a hiccup as he cleaned up Rayudu for a knock of 39(27). Still only 32 runs were required from 39 balls, and the experienced MSD walked out to bat and slammed two consecutive fours off Morris. Gaikwad got to a well deserved fifty as CSK were bossing the chase. The young Gaikwad finished the match with a four and a six against Morris in the penultimate over as CSK won the match by 8 wickets.
-- Jatin Shad