The season opener of the Indian Premier League 2019 was between the two heavyweights of the tournament and everyone expected it to be a cracker of a contest. But this turned out to be a rather one-sided affair, where Chennai Super Kings maintained their dominance over their Southern rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The Chennai surface has not tasted much of the IPL in last four years. It was just the second IPL game at MA Chidambaram Stadium in the last four years. The curator left the pitch dry and prepared it to turn from the start. The spinners got a lot of assistance from it. Chennai ran riots on RCB to dismiss them for a modest total of 70 runs and won the game by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare. Have a look at the reasons of loss for Bengaluru.
Also Read: Who will be the X factor for CSK in IPL 2019?
Turbanator turned like a pro
Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was introduced in the second over of the match by MS Dhoni and he was turning the leather from the very first ball. Bhajji first picked the big fish in form of Virat Kohli in his second over. Moeen Ali was his second victim in the next over. The pitch was tailor-made for Harbhajan and dismissed AB de Villiers as well in his final over. If dismissing this trio was not enough, Shimron Hetmyer got run out in the last over of Bhajji’s spell. The bowling figures of Turbanator read 4-0-20-3.
RCB’s top-order fell like ninepins
Everyone was talking about the flamboyant top-order of RCB, which features Kohli, De Villiers, Hetmyer and Moeen Ali. But none of them survived against the vicious spin bowling of Chennai. Harbhajan was the wrecker in chief and all of them were dismissed during his over. While Kohli just six runs, Ali and De Villiers scored nine runs each. Hetmyer was the biggest disappointment as he got out for a silver duck on the night of his IPL debut.
Also Read: Who will be the X factor for RCB in IPL 2019?
Spin(e)-less RCB attack
Dhoni hinted at the toss that he would like to see how the proceedings are going and that is why he is opting to bowl first. The home team was fielding with as many as three regular spinners along with two part-timers in form of Suresh Raina and Kedar Jadhav. On the other hand, RCB left the spin duty on the shoulders of Yuzvendra Chahal and Moeen Ali. Both spinners bowled well but fielding with five pace-bowling options proved costly to RCB.
