RCB won the toss and were keen to bat first and set up a big total, something they undoubtedly achieved as they were the first side to score 200 runs in the tournament. The success was completely built around the Challengers top 3, no one else managing double figures! Its not often that Chris Gayle is outshone in an opening stand, but Agarwal certainly managed it as he scored 45 (26 balls) in an opening stand of 53. He may have struggled to pick up singles and rotate strike, at the expense of Gayle, but showed ability to hit a clean ball with 5 boundaries and 3 maximums. It must be depressing as a member of the opposition to get Agarwal and then see Virat Kohli striding to the crease and he kept up the momentum. He immediately realised that his role was to make sure that Gayle saw as much of the bowling as possible and the big West Indian didn't disappoint. He scored 68 from just 35 balls and, as he always does, hit some enormous 6s as Kohli showed his class with a half century of his own. All the CSK bowlers' figures suffered from the RCB onslaught, barring possibly Bravo's 4 tidy overs for 30 runs and Dougie Bollinger who bowled decently to take 3-24 in his 3 overs. A big score of 205/8 put RCB right on top but there is a reason that CSK have such a good record and they were intent on gaining an important win.
Chennai had a good start but were always playing catch up, needing 10 an over from ball one. By the end of the powerplay the game was still on at 52/0, thanks primarily to some great timing and shot making from Faf du Plessis, hitting the 6th over for 20 runs with a couple of enormous sixes. It was at this point that the canny Muralitharan come in to the attack and bowled what should have been the match winning spell, it seems remarkable to think that RCB lost after his 4-0-21-3. He turned the ball both ways and used changes in flight and pace nicely, taking the important wickets of Vijay, Raina and du Plessis. Despite starting well, on the back of Faf's innings, CSK had plenty to do with the score at 112/2 after 13, still needing a whopping 94 at 13.4 an over. Everyone knows that CSK's middle order is capable of quick scoring but few would have predicted what was to come. Dhoni (41 from 24)and Bravo (25* from 15) provided timely boundaries to keep their side in with a chance but when Dhoni fell to the last ball of the 18th over, still needing 43 runs, it would have taken a miracle to get them over the line!
Unfortunately for RCB, Morkel did just this, not needing to play himself in as he single-handedly smashed the 19th over (his first 6 balls!) for 28 runs. Absolute carnage with Virat Kohli's medium pace getting hit MILES. Vettori will be wishing he used Virat's filler over earlier on and saved a death bowler for the 19th, but it was just one of those things. The way that Morkel was able to tee-off from ball one was remarkable, and frankly unthinkable. His ridiculous 7 ball 28 set up a grand-stand finish and with 15 needed from the last it was suddenly anyone's game. Vinay Kumar's no ball that was hit for 4 and subsequent 6, both hits from Bravo, left Jadeja needing 2 from the last ball to win the game. RJ's wild swing took the outside edge to fly to the 3rd man fence and prompted, what I'm told, were wild celebrations. A great game to watch, making it a real shame that I didn't.
Du Plessis won man of the match for his superb knock of 71 from 46 balls, not his first good innings of IPL 5, but it was an astonishing assault from Morkel that won the game for CSK, along with Dhoni's innings. It looked like they were heading for a 3rd defeat in 4 games, a shocker of a start for the reigning champions, and they stole an incredible victory and a crucial one at that. RCB will be frustrated to have lost from the position that they were in, but there is little you can do when someone like Morkel decides to hit the ball in the way that he did. They look a really strong line-up, as do Chennai, and its no suprise that the game was such a close won, if only I'd watched it!
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