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Rain threat loomed large before the virtual knockout at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru before the clash between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Rain did play spoilsport after three overs were bowled in RCB’s innings. But no overs were lost. While RCB got off to a brilliant start, openers Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli struggled after the rain break as spinners were getting more assistance from the pitch. After the 27-run win over CSK, skipper Du Plessis revealed that at one point he and Kohli were thinking that 140-150 was a par score. The 39-year-old struggled against left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and said he felt like it was a Day 5 pitch at Ranchi.
“Batting first, I think it was the hardest pitch I have ever played on in T20s. Myself and Virat were talking about 140-150 after we came back from the rain break. The communication from the umpires was there was a lot of rain on the pitch, they wanted to push the game and that makes sense. When we came back, my goodness, I was telling Mitch Santner it was like a day 5 Test match at Ranchi and to get 200 on that was unbelievable,” he said in the post-match presentation.
After the rain break, Ruturaj Gaikwad introduced Sri Lankan leg-spinner Maheesh Theekshana into the attack. He conceded just four runs from the over and Du Plessis faced three dot balls. He struggled against Santner as well. The Kiwi spinner conceded just two runs from the over. In the last over of powerplay overs, Du Plessis looked frustrated and he managed to hit a boundary.
In five overs after the break, only 19 runs were scored. However, Kohli broke the shackles. He hit Ravindra Jadeja for a six in the ninth over. He slog-swept Santner for a six as well before getting out next ball. He scored 47 runs from 29 balls. After Kohli's wicket, Du Plessis accelerated. He hit Jadeja for a four and two sixes in the next over. The former South African captain reached his half-century from 35 balls. His knock came to an end after a controversial run out. He scored 54 runs from 39 balls.
Later, Rajat Patidar's 23-ball 41, Cameron Green's unbeaten 17-ball 38 and cameos from Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell helped RCB post 218/5, their joint-highest IPL total against CSK. They needed to restrict CSK below 200 to qualify for the playoffs. CSK failed to do it as they managed to post 191/7 on the board.
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