Navi Mumbai: Shivam Dube and Rohit Uthappa feasted on the Royal Challengers Bangalore attack as their scintillating half centuries powered Chennai Super Kings to an imposing 216 for four in an IPL game here on Tuesday. Invited to bat, Uthappa (88 off 50 balls) and Dube (95 not out) shared a whooping 165-run partnership off just 74 balls for the third wicket -- the highest this season -- to rally the innings after CSK was reeling at 36 for 2 in their 200th IPL match.
Both Uthappa, who turned back the clock, and Dube displayed their six-hitting prowess, pummelling the RCB attack into submission at the DY Patil Sports Academy. While Uthappa's knock was studded with nine sixes and four boundaries, Dube also hit eight sixes and five fours in his unbeaten 46-ball knock.
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Both Dube and Uthappa posted their highest IPL scores to set up the match for defending champions CSK, who are reeling from four straight losses and are still looking for their first win this season. Uthappa took time to settle and fetched his first boundary only in the fifth over, a cut shot off Mohammed Siraj (0/37), before clobbering Akash Deep (0/58) for his first maximum in the next over.
Uthappa and Dube then upped the ante as they hammered a boundary each off Deep and then the lanky left-handed batter launched into Glenn Maxwell (0/29) for his first six over long-on. The carnage started from the 11th over as the duo went hammer and tongs and CSK cruised to 133 for 2 in the 15th over, with 73 runs coming in the five overs.
Dube was brutal on Wanindu Hasaranga (2/35), who bled 13 runs, in the 11th over. Uthappa and Dube spared no bowler with the former stricking three sixes off Maxwell in the 13th over as CSK amassed 19 runs. Continuing the onslaught, the duo punished Deep in the 15th over, as it was raining boundaries and sixes here.
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Uthappa stepped up the attack after his fifty and launched into Siraj, hitting him for two sixes and a four in the 17th over, where 18 runs came. Deep again faced Dube's brunt, conceding two sixes and a boundary in the 18th over, as 200 looked imminent. Deep bled 24 runs in the 18th over.
Uthappa missed a deserving hundred as he fell in the penultimate over which yielded 14 runs and then Dube compounded the bowling team's woes by hitting two sixes in the final over to finish the innings in style. CSK lost Ruturaj Gaikwad (17) and Moeen Ali (3) cheaply. But then it was the Uthappa and Dube show.
