Starc returns strongly but RCB lose again

Mitchell Starc made an impressive return to competitive cricket from a knee injury but Chennai Super Kings proved to be too strong for his Royal Challengers Bangalore in their 2015 IPL encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

A swashbuckling half-century from Suresh Raina helped the Super Kings pile on 8-181 before an excellent effort on the field and Ashish Nehra's 4-10 ensured Bangalore fell 27 runs short of the target.

With rain in the air and the M Chinnaswamy Stadium known to be a difficult ground to defend, it came as no surprise when Bangalore captain Virat Kohli decided to field first having won the toss.

Chennai went in unchanged while Bangalore made three changes, the biggest surprise of the evening being the benching of Chris Gayle. 

The much-vaunted duel between Brendon McCullum and Starc duel didn’t quite materialise, with the Black Caps skipper facing just three balls from the left-handed swing bowler - the same number Starc bowled before famously dismissing him in the recent World Cup final.

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Starc was one of Bangalore's best with the ball // BCCI

McCullum managed to loft a four over point on this occasion, but leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal got the better of him in the very next over. 

At the other end, the in-form Dwayne Smith struggled to get going; his first boundary was at outside edge off the bowling of Chahal from the 11th ball he faced.

A few balls later, however, he had smashed the same bowler over the leg-side for a six to signal his intentions. 

Part of the reason for Smith's early difficulties was Starc, whose reputation to swing the new ball kept the West Indian on his toes and gave up just six runs from his first spell of two overs.

With Starc out of the attack, Raina came in at No.3 and hit Harshal Patel for two fours and then lofted a straight-drive for six next over off David Wiese as Chennai overcame the slow start to finish the Powerplay on 1-45.

Patel pulled things back in his second over but Smith took on Wiese and crashed him for 17 from his second. Smith departed soon after for 39, edging Patel to the keeper.

Chennai captain MS Dhoni had admitted he had "eaten too many deliveries" in their previous defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals so it came as no surprise that he promoted himself to No.4 in the order and carved the first delivery he faced through backward point for a four.  

With Dhoni settling in, Raina unleashed nearly two overs of terror, hitting a four and a six off Abdulla and then taking on Chahal and smashing him for three successive sixes. 

That was the 13th over and Chennai were going at around 10 runs an over for the loss of just two wickets. But with a score of 200 looking almost certain, and anywhere between 210 and 220 a possibility, Chahal showed he was made of sterner stuff.

Attempting a fourth six off the leggie, Raina (62 off 32) only managed to hole out to long-off and in the next over, the same bowler had Dhoni outside-edging his first ball to deep cover. Chahal ended with figures of 3-40 with 19 of those having come in one over.

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Raina's innings was the backbone of Chennai's innings // BCCI

The rest of the Chennai batting failed to push them up to even 190, with the consistent fall of wickets blunting their excellent start. Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo and R Ashwin fell for single-digit scores and only Faf du Plessis's unbeaten 18-ball 33 helped them get to their final total. The Super Kings managed just 48 runs from the final six overs of their innings.

Starc was exemplary on his return. Barring his third over, in which he conceded three boundaries, there weren’t too many loose balls on offer and he ended with 1-24 from his four, including a last over in which he gave up just three runs off the bat. 

With Gayle left out, the opening roles for Bangalore fell to Manvinder Bisla and Rilee Rossouw and for a while, the pair looked comfortable.

Bisla was quick to smash Ishwar Pandey for a couple of fours in the very first over of the chase, and added another one against Mohit Sharma in the third. 

Rossouw blasted the first six of the innings in that over and followed it up by whacking Sharma over mid-on for four, taking Bangalore to 0-31 from three.

Nehra has been Chennai’s best bowler of the season so far, having won the man-of-the-match award on two occasions, and he brought the Super Kings back into the game by striking twice in the same over.

The first wicket was the result of one of the catches of the tournament. Bisla’s attempted hoick took a top-edge and du Plessis back-peddled backwards took it one-handed. Three balls later, Nehra had turned the game on its head with a slower, in-dipper at Rossouw, that kept low and snuck through his defences.

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Rilee Rossouw is bowled by Ashish Nehra // BCCI

The obvious repercussion of those two dismissals was a fall in the run-rate, as Bangalore got to 2-44 in seven.

It was the introduction of spin that allowed Bangalore some leeway, with Dinesh Karthik sweeping Ashwin to the fence and Kohli hammering him for a six and a four in the same over.

An excellent diving catch by Bravo ended Karthik’s short stint, bringing de Villiers to the crease. 

With the required-rate climbing up almost 11 an over, de Villiers smashed a six apiece off Jadeja and Ishwar Pandey to maintain the rate, but just when it looked like he would bring his side back into the game, a brilliant piece of work from Dhoni left de Villiers stranded by a few centimetres, run-out for 14.

Despite the presence of Kohli at one end, the wicket of de Villiers was a serious blow. Seventeen-year-old Sarfaraz Khan hit a six while Wiese smashed couple of fours and a maximum but most of the running had to come from Kohli’s end. He did get to 51 after a slowish start but when he became Nehra’s third victim in the 16th over, the end was nigh.

Bangalore now have just a day to lick their wounds and fly off to Ahmedabad to take on the table-toppers Rajasthan while Chennai host Punjab on Saturday.