RCB vs CSK, 1st Match at Chennai, IPL, Mar 22 2024 - Match Result

IPL 2024 gets off to a rousing start with CSK getting the better of RCB at Chepauk yet again. If you missed any of the action, Deiva's report will be in soon. That's it from us tonight. Thanks everyone for tuning in. It's a double-header tomorrow and we will be live nice and early to bring all the action. Till then, this is me Ashish signing off on behalf of Sidharth, Thilak and Chandan. Ciao!

Mustafizur Rahman is the player of the match for his 4 for 29.

CSK captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad: Total control right from the start. 2-3 overs here and there but once the spinners came on, we were in control. 10-15 runs lesser would have been great but they came back well. [Turning point?] To get Maxwell and even Faf out, the quick wickets were the turning point. Helps to control the next five-six overs. That was the main point. [Captaincy debut] I have always enjoyed it. Haven't felt the additional pressure, right from the state side. Not even a single time I felt pressurized by anything. Obviously had Mahi bhai with me. [On the chase] Everyone is a stroke-player in our side, even Jinx. There is role clarity in the batting unit. Helps a lot. Lots of positives, but two-three things to work on. The batting, everyone chipped in. If we had a few batters from the top-order batting through, the chase would have been easier.

Presentation time.

Some stat nuggets from Sampath:

- This is the 8th consecutive win for CSK vs RCB at Chepauk, the longest winning streak for any team against an opponent at a venue in IPL. Next best streak is for MI, who have won their last seven matches vs KKR at Wankhede.

- Ravindra Jadeja unbeaten in a successful IPL chase for the 27th time, joint-most by any batter, alongside MS Dhoni.

Amey: "Credit to Jadeja for playing only 2 dot balls and keeping the scoreboard moving, especially when Dube was struggling."

Afeef: "RCB needed a better plan than just bowling short balls. Alzarri could've been used better, I feel."

Rachin Ravindra: Pretty complete performance by us. We held our nerves. Batting with Jinx [Rahane] and Rutu, very calm heads. Lucky we had 4-5 days of good training. I find it easier going from red ball to white ball because I think the positions are the same, [Form] It's been good. The wickets were a bit different in training but I backed myself in the game. The experience of the amazing crowd was great. Helps a lot.

Faf du Plessis: You have to get ahead in the first six overs. Chennai squeeze you with their spinners. We lost too many wickets in the first six overs. We were 15-20 runs short on a pitch that wasn't as bad as we played in the first ten overs We were always a little bit behind trying to get ahead of the game. They were always ahead of the game. [Short ball plan] Dube wasn't comfortable with the short ball, we were trying to get a few wickets in the middle overs. But didn't happen. [Batting first] If you look at the stats, it is very in favour of batting first. It looked a bit on the drier side. The spinners, in the second innings, the ball started to grip a bit. We backed our seamers against Dube. But batting first was the right decision. [On DK and Rawat] Really good for Dinesh setting up the season for someone who hasn't really played a lot of cricket in the last year. Really important knock for himself. Rawat showed some really promise even last year. He showed composure.

11.55pmAnd the wait continues. That is eight wins on the bounce for CSK against RCB at Chepauk. And a clinical win it was to kick-off IPL 2024. It was Rachin Ravindra, on IPL debut, who gave the chase a flying start with a 15-ball 37. Rahane also did his bit scoring a quick 27. RCB did come back into the game with a few quick wickets as they adopted the short ball plan. But I felt they over-did it. Dube was clearly struggling initially, but once he survived, run-scoring was easy. Jadeja did his bit in rotating the strike, and eventually CSK got home with eight balls to spare. While RCB's middle order collapsed, CSK had all their batters contributing. And that was the difference between the two teams.

Siraj

All set to continue