Lomror, Hazlewood help RCB beat CSK, return to top four
The scores were similar till the first powerplay. Royal Challengers Bangalore were 57/0, Chennai Super Kings 51/0. Both teams lost three wickets within the 10-over mark. Half the side dismissed by the 16th over, CSK still needed 52 from 24 balls. Enter MS Dhoni. Back as captain, Dhoni was no stranger to this equation, nor to the warm fuzzy feeling of acing it. But then Josh Hazlewood tightened the screws with a five-run over.
Needing 47 from 18, Moeen Ali had to throw his bat at everything. He chose a slower ball from Harshal Patel. It should have been a wide had Ali left the ball alone but he got a toe to it and the ball ballooned to Mohammed Siraj at extra cover. End of the 18th over, CSK needed 39 from 12. Dhoni pulled a length ball from Hazlewood but didn’t get enough elevation as he holed out to Rajat Patidar at deep midwicket. Heaving a sigh of relief, RCB ambled to a 13-run win to move to fourth on the table with 12 points from 11 games. Languishing at ninth with six points, CSK are as good as out of playoffs contention now.
In all fairness, CSK shouldn’t have fluffed this chase after the start they got. Devon Conway was majestically driving, sweeping and clearing his front leg for inside-out shots that kept them ahead of the asking rate till the seventh over. But barring Ali, not one top-order or middle-order batter got even 10. That was bound to hurt. RCB were in a similar position but Mahipal
Lomror scored 42 off 27 and added 44 with Patidar for the fourth wicket and 32 off the fifth with Dinesh Karthik to change course.
Till that first partnership flourished, RCB looked down and out for the count though. Kohli’s dismissal always puts a spanner in the best of plans but this time he had already consumed 32 balls, scoring just 30, leaving RCB very little time to turn around. The dismissal was almost Test like—Ali tossing up one that pitched and turned, luring Kohli into a flick. But Kohli didn’t get to its pitch and the ball spun almost square—replays showed by seven degrees—to hit middle and leg.
The one that got Faf du Plessis was almost a long-hop, the RCB captain failing to clear deep midwicket. Glenn Maxwell was run out in no time, leaving RCB’s Indian recruits a tall task.
Where Lomror and Patidar were smart was in not taking too much risk against CSK’s spinners. Maheesh Theeksana finished with 4-0-27-3, Ravindra Jadeja 4-0-20-0 and Ali 4-0-28-2. Once they were out of the way, Lomror and Karthik took heavy toll on Dwaine Pretorius in the final overs, creaming him for 34 runs in two overs. Overall, RCB added 50 in the last five overs, enough to beat the odds of Dhoni conjuring another magical chase.
Brief scores: RCB 173/8 (V Kohli 30, F du Plessis 38, M Lomror 42; M Theekshana 3/27, M Ali 2/28). CSK 160/8 (D Conway 56, M Ali 34; H Patel 3/35, G Maxwell 2/22). RCB won by 13 runs.