Dhoni smashed 24 off the first five balls and with two needed off the last ball, it seemed CSK was poised to win. Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to pull off a thrilling win to keep their hopes alive for the playoffs.
New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings needed 26 runs in the last over against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL 2019 encounter at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Sunday. Chennai Super Kings supporters did not lose faith and remained hopeful. They had MS Dhoni, a finisher of freakish proportions.
Playing for Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017, Dhoni had scored 23 runs in the final over bowled by Axar Patel. He had scored two sixes in the last two balls to ensure a win for Pune. In Bangalore on Sunday, Dhoni was facing Umesh Yadav.
Dhoni smashed 24 off the first five balls and with two needed off the last ball, it seemed CSK was poised to win. Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to pull off a thrilling win to keep their hopes alive for the playoffs.
Let’s look at the factors which game Royal Challengers Bangalore’s way:
The Challengers couldn’t score heavily on a decent batting wicket and posted only 161 for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.
Deepak Chahar picked up the big wicket of Virat Kohli to push RCB on the backfoot. AB de Villiers tried to play aggressive cricket, and he perished to Ravindra Jadeja after scoring 25 from 19 balls.
At the other end, Parthiv Patel looked solid and accomplished yet another half-century in 36 deliveries.
He strung a stand of 41 runs with Akshdeep Nath, who also contributed with 24 off 20 balls. Marcus Stoinis came ahead of Moeen Ali, which didn’t prove to be the best of decisions as he managed to get 14 from 13 balls.
Parthiv Patel was the fourth to be dismissed as DJ Bravo showed his excellence in the game. However, in RCB’s innings, Parthiv Patel was the lone survivor as others struggled to keep going.
Dale Steyn dismissed the likes of Shane Watson and Suresh Raina with a couple of absolute peaches at the start of the chase. Faf du Plessis tried to break the shackles, but Umesh Yadav sent him back.
In his next over, Yadav removed Kedar Jadhav, who was beginning to look promising with a couple of fours. As the table-toppers were four down for 28 runs on the board, the onus was on veteran MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu to resurrect the innings.
Rayudu was threatening to take the game away with a 29, and his knock was cut short by Yuzvendra Chahal. The Super Kings needed a daunting 70 runs from the last five overs. In the 17th over, Jadeja was involved with a mix-up with Dhoni and got run out.
MS Dhoni kept his calm and held his nerves. He started to hammer the opposition bowlers all around the ground and brought the equation down to 26 runs off six deliveries. Dhoni took Umesh Yadav to charge and smashed 24 runs off the first five deliveries, and everyone thought Chennai would fix their playoff spot with just 2 needed off one ball.
However, the ball was pitched outside the off-stump, and the wonky bounce made it difficult for Dhoni to connect with it. It bounced just in front of wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel, and he made no mistake in hitting the target with an accurate throw to dismiss Shardul Thakur as RCB clinched the game by just one run.
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