Sharjah: Despite some fiery batting by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) openers Devdutt Padikkal (70 from 50 balls) and Virat Kohli (53 off 41) on Friday, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were able to restrict the team's total to 156-6 in an Indian Premier League match here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The team was doing well when AB de Villiers (12) arrived but CSK soon got his prized wicket as his stay would have accelerated the RCB total at an electric speed.
Glenn Maxwell too couldn't help the teams scoreline much and got dismissed at 11 runs.
From CSK side, Dwayne Bravo and Shardul Thakur were the pick of the bowlers dismissing two batsmen each.
Kohli and Padikkal were going hammer and tongs after being asked to take first strike but once the partnership was broken by Dwayne Bravo, the RCB lost momentum and allowed CSK to wrest control.
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RCB managed only 45 runs in the remaining 6.4 overs after being in a position from where they could have pushed for a score in the vicinity of 200.
Bravo's bowling made a huge difference to the conclusion of the RCB innings as he conceded only 24 runs in his four overs and also added the wickets of Glenn Maxwell (11) and Harshal Patel (3).
CSK had no dearth of quality bowlers with Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood opening the attack but Bangalore openers -- Kohli and Padikkal -- went about striking the ball cleanly.
Kohli began with consecutive boundaries off Chahar but took a bit of time to find his rhythm. The skipper lofted the same bowler for a massive six on the on-side while Padikkal was fluent with his well-timed shots on the off-side.
MS Dhoni shuffled his bowlers but none got the length that could either trouble the batsmen or stop the run flow.
The young left-hander also used his feet well against left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, sending the ball soaring over long-on. He completed his fifty with a crushing four off Chahar which also raised the team's hundred.
The breakthrough eventually came when Bravo sent back Kohli, who struck the ball clean and hard but was caught near the boundary ropes.
That wicket stemmed the run flow and while trying to break the shackles, both AB De Villiers and Padikkal became victims of Shardul Thakur.
Maxwell was expected to go after the bowlers and he did that, striking a six off Bravo to raise the team's 150 in the 18th over, but a late flourish eluded RCB.
With PTI
