CSK WINS THE OPENER OF 2024 IPL

22 March, Cheppauk, Chennai, RCB won the toss and decided to bat first, and Rituraj Gaikwad-led CSK were the ones to field first. MS Dhoni has stepped down from the captaincy, providing a time to groom the youngster this season, where Gaikwad was able to fully grab the opportunity with both hands. There were more than half a dozen field changes in the first few overs, and Mustafizur Raihman was able to take a couple of wickets in his first over while debuting for the CSK. The pitch was helping the batsman, and Faf hit the eight fours within the 4.2 overs of the game and fell for the trap of Fizz getting caught at deep point by Rachin Ravindra, another debutant for CSK. On the last ball of the same over, Fizz struck back, and Patidar was caught behind by MS Dhoni, recreating a test cricket wicket. Chahar took the wicket of Maxwell, and RCB were 42 for 3 by the end of the powerplay.

While Cameroon Green and Virat Kohli were building the partnership for the fourth wicket, Fizz came out to bowl the eleventh over, taking the wicket of both Virat and Green. By the end of that, they were 79 for five. Two new batsmen, Dinesh Kartik and debutant Anuj Rawat, were on the crease to control the collapse of RCB. All the red armies were cross-fingered so that their team could put a defendable target on the board. In the next seven overs, they built a partnership of 94 runs, which helped them make a total of 173 while losing the wicket of Rawat on the last ball of the 20th over. 

In return, the mighty CSK came out with a new opening pair where Rituraj started the game by pulling the first ball and letting it kiss the boundary rope. RCB was able to get their fish on net on the last ball of the third over, where Gaikwad was edged to the slip. It was excellent captaincy by Faf Du Plesis, knowing that Rituraj struggled a bit against left-arm seamers and kept a first slip when Yash Dayal was bowling. On the other end, debutant Rachin Ravindra was playing some fearless shots and gave a very good start to CSK, where they stood tall with 62 for 1 at the end of the powerplay. On the end of the 7th over, Rachin was caught in a deep back square leg by Patidar on the over of Karn Sharma. Now, both Daryl Mitchelle and Ajinkay Rahane were playing some fearless cricket, hitting a few big shots, and taking the score to 99 before losing their second wicket. The Yellow Army of Chepauk was waiting to see Thala in action, but the plans of the captain were different, and Shivam Dube entered the pitch as an impactful substitute player in place of Fizz. RCB’s bowlers were testing both batsmen with short-pitched balls, and both of them were not able to open their hands as usual. In the third ball of the 12th over, the short ball did a job to take a wicket for Mitchel, making it the fourth wicket for CSK. Now, Jadeja was on the crease along with the youngster Dube. Both of them were playing calmly with singles and doubles and took the team to victory by 18.4 over. Mustafizur Rahman was the man of the match for his fabulous performance of 4-0-29-4.

There are two games tomorrow: Punjab Kings vs. Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad.