Veteran Ashish Nehra dished out a brilliant spell of pace bowling after Suresh Raina's sparkling half-century as Chennai Super Kings registered a comfortable 27-run victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match in Bangalore, on Wednesday.
- Scorecard
Put into bat, Raina smashed a blistering 32-ball 62 to help Chennai post a challenging 181 for eight after a delayed start due to rain before Nehra led the bowling charge with superb figures of four wickets for 10 runs in his four overs, his best in T20 cricket, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The 35-year-old left-arm pacer ended Bangalore's faint hopes of a victory by dismissing home side captain Virat Kohli (51) and Harshal Patel (0) in consecutive deliveries in the 17th over to seal the match for Chennai. The hosts finished on a disappointing 154 for eight to suffer their third victory in four matches in IPL 8.
Bangalore, who took the field without destructive opening batsman Chris Gayle -- dropped after indifferent form -- did not have a big partnership and none of their top-order batsmen, except Kohli, could cross 20.
Kohli hit four boundaries and two sixes in his 42-ball knock but didn't get enough support from the other end.
Chennai bounced back after their last match loss to Rajasthan Royals to take their tally to eight points from five matches with the help of three wins to remain on second spot.
Bangalore remain at the bottom of the eight-team league table with just two points from four matches.
Bangalore made a flying start in their reply with Rilee Rossouw (14) and Manvinder Bisla (17) putting on a quickfire stand of 31 runs before Nehra dismissed both the openers in the space of four balls in the fourth over to push the home side on the backfoot.
Bisla was out thanks to a sensational one-handed catch by Faf du Plessis, who ran back from mid-off and dived to his right but still managed to hold on despite falling down.
In the last ball of the fourth over, Rossouw edged a Nehra delivery on to his stumps as Bangalore were reduced to 33 for two in the fourth over.
Dinesh Karthik could contribute just 10 from 11 balls before he was out thanks to a superb catch by Dwayne Bravo off the bowling of Ishwar Pandey and A B de Villiers (14) also perished cheaply.
De Villiers hit two sixes in his short stay at the crease before he was run-out due to some quick glove work by Chennai captain and wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was able to beat the nimble-footed South African.
IPL debutant Sarfaraz Khan (11), the youngest to play in the cash-rich league at 17 years and 177 days, hit Ravindra Jadeja for a six but perished in the same over as he was caught at deep midwicket.
Kohli waged a lone battle as he completed his fifty from 40 balls with a straight six off Jadeja in the 16th over but was dismissed by Nehra as Dwayne Smith took a well-judged catch on the midwicket fence to end Bangalore's hopes.
Earlier, Suresh Raina struck a blistering 32-ball 62 to help Chennai Super Kings post a challenging 181 for eight in their 20 overs.
Put into bat after a 25-minute rain-delayed start, Chennai rode on Raina's brilliant attacking half-century and his 54-run quickfire partnership from just four overs for the third wicket with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (13).
Chennai lost a bit of momentum towards the end with quick dismissals of Raina, Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja (8) before Faf du Plessis rallied the visitors with a quickfire 33 not out from 18 deliveries.
Chennai were 81 for two at the halfway mark and added exactly 100 in the next 10 overs. The in-form opener Dwayne Smith made a handy contribution of 39 from 29 balls.
Raina came in at the fall of Brendon McCullum (4) in the second over and after settling down, he set the Chinnaswamy Stadium on fire with some lusty blows all over the park. He hit four boundaries and six sixes in his 32-ball knock.
The left-hander struck three sixes off successive deliveries in the 13th over bowled by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal before the bowler had the last laugh with his wicket in the same over.
Raina holed out to Rilee Rossouw at long-off as he attempted his fourth successive six of the over.
Chennai also lost Dhoni and Jadeja in successive overs, while Dwayne Bravo (5) and Ravichandran Ashwin (5) also did not last long as the visitors lost their way but du Plessis came up with the goods in the last few overs.
For Bangalore, Chahal was the most successful bowler by grabbing three wickets though he conceded 40 runs in his four overs. Iqbal Abdulla took two wickets while Mitchell Starc, Harshal Patel and David Wiese got a wicket each.
