Chennai Super Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 34 runs in an IPL game

The Chennai Super Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 34 runs in an IPL game played yesterday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Chennai was restricted just to a par score on the tiny ground and at the half time, it was looking like Bangalore’s game to lose, but, some great fast bowling by Ashish Nehra turned things in the visitors’ favour.

Nehra got 4 wickets and with that, he topped the wicket taking chart of this season.

Barring Nehra, the likes of Mohit Sharma and Dwayne Bravo bowled well too as they always do.

However, it was actually AB De Villiers’ run out which was the turning point in the game and all the credit for that goes to the Chennai captain MS Dhoni.

He showed great presence of mind to gather the ball by taking a couple of steps forward and throw it back onto the stumps rather than trying to reach the stumps with his gloves.

That split second that he saved by throwing, it resulted in that run out. Had he tried to go with the gloves, De Villiers would probably have been home.

Dhoni is probably the most street smart wicketkeeper around. He continues to show these little pieces of brilliance behind the stumps. His methods are not always orthodox, but, whatever he does, it turns out to be very effective.

Very rarely would you see him collecting the ball behind the stumps when the throw comes from the deep. Normally, the wicketkeepers are advised to do so. But, Dhoni’s theory is different. He has his own way and that’s why, he is the superstar.

Speed wise, you might say that he is not quite the same which he was maybe 5 years back either in batting or wicket keeping, but, he is wily customer and his experience is invaluable for CSK.