Mustafizur rattles RCB before RawatKarthik show
The Chennai Super Kings’ leftarm pacer’s four wickets in his first two overs derail the Bengaluru innings; the visiting batters rescue the side with a 95run stand to lift it to 173
n any other day, Mustafizur Rahman might have received a hostile welcome at the MAC Stadium. The Bangladeshi became infamous on his ODI debut in 2015 when he and M.S. Dhoni had a coming together in Mirpur.
Dhoni shoved past the leftarm pacer who was standing in his way as he tried to complete a single, and both players were handed hefty fines for their behaviour.
But on Friday, all that was forgiven when the Bangladeshi, now in Chennai Super Kings colours, broke the back of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s batting lineup with a crafty spell of pace bowling (four for 29) to have the visitors in deep trouble at 78 for five.
However, a late flourish from Anuj Rawat (48, 25b, 4x6, 3x6) and Dinesh Karthik (38 n.o., 3x4, 2x6) allowed RCB to end up with a formidable 173 for six in
Othe opening game of the IPL. The duo added 95 for the sixth wicket off just 50 balls.
Electing to bat, skipper Faf du Plessis (35, 23b, 8x4) got his side off to a strong start. The South African, playing his first IPL game in Chepauk for a team other than Super Kings, smoked Deepak Chahar for four boundaries in the third over.
But in the fifth over, Mustafizur pulled things back with a twin strike, removing du Plessis caught at deeppoint before having Rajat Patidar caught behind.
Virat Kohli, playing his first game in two months, couldn’t find the boundaries and perished trying to pull a cutter from ‘Fizz’ to be caught in the deep. Two balls later, Mustafizur castled Cameron Green with a cutter, and the sellout crowd was readying for a quick end to Bengaluru’s innings.
But Rawat and Karthik had other ideas, blasting the mediumpacers all over the park to plunder 71 runs off the last five. Rawat started the counterattack with two fours of Chahar.
The lefthander then tore into Tushar Deshpande, collecting two sixes and a boundary with clean hits down the ground as 25 runs came off the 18th over to help RCB finish strongly.