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IPL 2019: Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir power CSK to seven-wicket win over RCB in opener
Suresh Raina became the first cricketer in the history of the IPL to complete 5000 IPL runs in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir spun a web around their opponents as Chennai Super Kings registered a convincing seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first match of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the spin-friendly MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday. ((Full Scorecard))
This is Chennai’s seventh successive victory over Banagalore in the cash-rich league. As for Kohli’s troops, their long wait to win a match at Chepauk continues as their last victory here came in 2008.
Chasing a paltry target of 71, Chennai got off to a bad start as Shane Watson was castled by Yuzvendra Chahal for a duck in the third over of the innings. Suresh Raina then joined forces with the Ambati Rayudu and the duo put on a good partnership to bail the hosts out of trouble.
Also Read: IPL 2019, CSK vs RCB at Chepauk: As It Happened
During the course of their partnership, Raina also became the first cricketer in the history of the competition to complete 5000 IPL runs. The southpaw also extended his lead at the top of the list for the highest run-scorers in the IPL.
Raina then lost his concentration and was caught out at long-on off Moeen Ali for 19. Ambati Rayudu too followed suit soon as he was castled by Mohammed Siraj for 28.
But the short target meant that CSK were never really troubled in the chase as Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja ensured they got over the line with 14 balls to spare.
Earlier, spinner Harbhajan Singh wrecked the RCB top-order with a three-wicket haul as Chennai dismissed Bangalore for 70 in 17.1 overs.
The decision to bowl Harbhajan early in the innings paid dividends as he removed skipper Kohli (6) in the fourth over. Moeen Ali became Harbhajan’s second scalp of the day as he gave away an easy catch to the bowler after hitting him for a huge six in the previous over.
Also Read: Suresh Raina becomes first cricketer to score 5000 IPL runs
AB de Villiers wanted to hit out of trouble and was dropped by Imran Tahir off Harbhajan’s bowling. But his luck ran out the next delivery as the South African was caught by Jadeja at mid-wicket boundary.
With Shimron Hetmyer (0) getting run-out needlessly, RCB were in the dumps even before halfway stage. Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja scalped three and two wickets each to clean up the lower-order and help CSK dismiss the visitors 17 balls before the allotted 20 overs.
