Brilliant half-centuries by Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis went in vain as Chennai Super Kings chipped in with timely wickets to prevail over Royal Challengers by eight runs in Match 24 of IPL 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday.
Maxwell struck a 36-ball 76, smashing three fours and eight sixes while and Du Plessis hammered a 33-ball 62 as they came together for a sensational counter-attacking 126-run partnership for the third wicket that helped Royal Challengers Bangalore recover from 15/2 in the second over to keep on course for a massive chase.
RCB were up against it chasing the highest target of 227 and thanks to the brilliant batsmanship of Maxwell and Du Plessis came close to the target before being restricted to 218/8 in 20 overs, losing by eight runs.
The bats dominated the ball in this Southern Derby as 444 aggregate runs were scored in the match in which Tushar Deshpande of Chennai Super Kings emerged as the best bowler with 3-45 off four overs. In all 33 sixes were hit in two innings combined as the two teams put up a splendid display of big hitting. Though CSK won the match, they were lucky as they dropped around half a dozen catches. However, Ajiankya Rahane saved eight runs at the boundary and that ended up as the difference between the two teams.
Chasing a massive target of 227, the highest this season so far, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) got off to a poor start as Virat Kohli fell cheaply, dragging on an under edge onto his body and then the stump as he moved away to hit Akash Singh, who came in for Ambati Rayudu as Impact Player, out of the ground. Kohli was out for 6 (4 balls, 1x4).
Maheesh Theekshana dropped a sitter, running back from mid-off of the last ball of the first over as Mahipal Lomror survived a chance. But he was out without troubling the scorer, offering a dolly to Ruturaj Gaikwad at cover-point off Tushar Deshpande.
Skipper Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell set on the repair job with brilliant counter-attacking half-centuries as RCB maintained their chances for a successful chase.
Maxwell smashed two sixes off Akash Singh in the third over, flicked Theekshana for a six over the backward square and bashed a four and six off successive deliveries by fellow Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana in the eighth over.
He smacked Ravindra Jadeja for a boundary and then smashed back-to-back fours off Pathirana to complete his fifty in 20 balls.
Du Plessis kept up the scoring rate from the other end as he capitalised on an early drop off a difficult chance by Dhoni for a boundary to smash two fours and a six off Deshpande in the fourth over and smacked Akash Singh to a six and four off successive deliveries, whipping, cutting and driving with relish.
