Published: Mar 28, 2025, 11:59 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 29, 2025, 12:00 AM (IST)
Skipper Rajat Patidar’s fortuitous fifty received excellent support from an unerring set of bowlers as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) snapped a 17-year winless streak at Chepauk with a huge 50-run victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) here on Friday.
Having fought their way to a competitive 196/7, RCB applied the perfect squeeze on CSK with early strikes and the five-time winners crumbled without any resistance, making 146/8.
CSK’s defeat to RCB in the “Southern Derby” in their own “Anbuden” (Den of Love) was their first since the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008 and it was also their biggest reversal at home thus far.
The value of the victory could have gauged from the wide smile on the face of old warhorse Virat Kohli, the only one man in this RCB line-up who was part of that distant 2008 victory.
RCB’s win came courtesy a heady mix of orthodox game of giving it all with the bat and stifling the opposition with regular wickets.
CSK never recovered from a poor start which saw them losing skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (0) among three wickets inside the first two overs.
The win means that RCB move to the top of the table with 2 wins out of as many matches and with a brilliant net run-rate of +2.26 while on the other hand, CSK move down to 7th place with a net run-rate of -1.01.
