Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) mentor Dinesh Karthik put faith in his batters to ace the spin test that awaits them at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Friday against Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

CSK wins the toss, opts to bowl first.

“Pitch looks slightly better than the last game,” Ruturaj reckons. “This time we are better prepared if dew comes. We’d like to be a little more aggressive with the ball. Pathirana in for Ellis.”

“Would have liked to bowl first but toss won’t make a big difference,” says Patidar. “Opening partnership in the last game was very impressive. The fans of both teams makes the contest a lot more exciting. Bhuvi comes in for Rasikh.”

CSK: Rachin Ravindra, Ruturaj Gaikwad(C), Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Matheesha Pathirana, Khaleel Ahmed

RCB: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(C), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(WK), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal

RCB 9/0 in 1 over

Khaleel Ahmed with the new ball. Phil Salt and Virat Kohli open for RCB. 

Khaleel to Salt, back of a length swinging away from the right-hander, beats Salt’s swipe outside off. Straighter line, Salt looked to move across and flick it through the legside, thuds him on the thigh. Short ball outside off, Salt shoulders arms and moves away. Four!! Full outside off, Salt looks to loft it down the ground, the outside edge flies past slip and runs away to the boundary. Four!! Full and wide, Salt goes after it and manages to beat deep third to his right this time. Back of a length on the body, defended to short square for one. 

RCB 25/0 in 2 overs

Six!! Ashwin from the other end. Rank short delivery, Salt pulls it through square leg for six. Four!! A carrom ball on the stumps, Salt punches it past mid off for another boundary. A single to deep midwicket to follow. Kohli moves to the legside and swats one to deep mid for a single. Four!! Full on the stumps, swept fine, past short fine-leg for another boundary. Expensive start for Ashwin. 

RCB 196/7 in 20 overs

Curran to close the game out for CSK. The England all-rounder will look to mix it up. A beaut of a delivery, the second ball. As slow as they come and Tim David threw the kitchen sink at it. Missed it entirely though. The meter shows Curran cut 35 clicks on that ball. But Tim comes back stronger with three back-to-back sixes! The big man is landing the knockout punch in Chepauk. The pressure gets to Curran who has one stray wide of the line.

CSK 7/0 in 1 over

Bhuveshwar Kumar with the new ball in hand. Rachin Ravindra on strike with Rahul Tripathi at the other end. Bhuvi to Rachin, swinging away from the left-hander, Jitesh has to put in a dive to pouch it. On the pads, Rachin defends to short fine leg and scampers across for a quick single. Slightly wide, swinging away from the right-hander, guided to deep third for one. Rachin dabs one to deep point to accumulate another single. Four!! Slightly wide, Tripathi goes after it and the edge flies above slip and to the fence for four.

CSK 8/2 in 2 overs

Hazlewood to Rachin. Back of a length ball just outside off, punched to mid off for a single. WICKET!! Short ball, Tripathi is too early on the pull, hands a simple catch to Salt at short midwicket. 

Tripathi c Phil Salt b Hazlewood 5(3)

Ruturaj Gaikwad in at 3. Short of a length ball outside off, beats Gaikwad’s edge on the way to the keeper. Extra bounce there. Gaikwad looks to make room and is beaten by the bounce again. WICKET!! Short of a length again, Gaikwad pulls and holes out to the fielder running around from fine leg. 

CSK 146/8 in 20 overs

Chepauk crowd at least has some reason to cheer as Dhoni cracks his first two sixes of this season. And we have a four to cap it off. RCB wins by 50 runs to breach the MAC fortress.

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