Bravo heroics take Chennai top of standings

BANGALURU, India, CMC – West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo played hero as Chennai Super Kings plundered 16 runs from the final over to overhaul an imposing target of 206, and beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets with two balls to spare here yesterday.

RCB entered the final over at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium with the odds in their favour but the right-handed Bravo topedged a hook at left-arm seamer Corey Anderson to the boundary to reduce the equation to 12 runs from five balls.

Off the next delivery, Bravo spectacularly cleared the ropes at extra cover and following a single to deep point, captain MS Dhoni hit the winning runs with a six over long on.

Bravo finished on 14 not out off seven deliveries while Dhoni was unbeaten on a 34-ball 70 which included a four and seven sixes. Opener Ambati Rayudu had earlier top-scored with 82 off with three balls, a knock laced with three fours and eight sixes, and which saw him add 101 for the fifth wicket with Dhoni.

Bravo had taken two for 33 from his four overs after Chennai chose to bowl first, as RCB rattled up an impressive 205 for eight off their 20 overs.

AB de Villiers topscored with 68 from 30 deliveries, putting on 103 for the second wicket with fellow South African Quinton de Kock who struck 53 from 37 balls at the top of the order.

Mandeep Singh (32) added 49 off 24 balls for the fifth wicket with Colin de Grandhomme (11) but Bravo helped spark a slide which saw four wickets tumble for a single run in the space of four deliveries at the end.

The victory took Chennai top of the standings on 10 points with Kings XI Punjab on a similar number of points but second by virtue of a inferior net run rate.