Since joining Chennai Super Kings, Dwayne Bravo has been an irreplaceable member of the team.
On Monday, off the last ball of the 14th over during the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s chase, the West Indian all-rounder produced a tide-turning moment of brilliance that eventually proved decisive in giving the Super Kings their seventh win of the season and taking them a step closer to qualification for the playoffs.
Pursuing a modest target of 149, the Royal Challengers were 97 for three, and Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli were in the midst of a solid partnership. Bravo fielded a prod down the pitch off his own bowling from Kohli, and fired the ball back in at the stumps to catch the batsman short of the crease.
Kohli and Karthik had stabilised the RCB innings after being reduced to 34 for three, with Ishwar Pandey dismissing opener Nic Maddinson and getting A.B. de Villiers who had threatened to take the game away from the home team as he raced to 21 off just 14 balls with five fours.
Threatening standKarthik and Kohli attacked the spinners and put pressure on the fielders, running hard between the wickets during their 63-run partnership.
When Ashish Nehra dismissed Karthik the ball after Kohli’s dismissal, Super Kings had once again effectively swung the match their way from an unlikely situation, and went on to record their 10th successive win at the venue, a streak going back to 2013. Earlier, RCB pacers Mitchell Starc and Harshal Patel put the skids on the explosive Super Kings batting line-up to restrict the side to a score under 150.
Right at the outset, Starc was on the money.
After giving away nothing in the first five deliveries, he bowled Dwayne Smith off the last ball of the game’s first over with a full- length delivery.
In the middle overs, Harshal kept things tight, preventing Raina and Faf du Plessis from scoring freely. Harshal came around the wicket to Raina giving him no width.
Just as CSK started getting a move on after the 12th over, Harshal removed both the set batsmen — du Plessis played on and Raina was trapped in front trying to play across the line.
CSK got off to its lowest score in the PowerPlay overs this season, managing only 37 for two.
Yet again, the middle order failed, with only Raina managing to go past fifty.
The total would have been even smaller but for M.S. Dhoni’s cameo of 29 off 18 balls that included a couple of sixes.
It was a crucial knock for Raina too; he has had starts so far this season but only one fifty.
