Bangalore, Apr 21: Winning convincingly is something new to Royal Challengers Bangalore this year and Saturday was a start.
But faced with an easy chase of 118 in their 100th T20 match overall, the hosts nearly threatened another close finish before holding their nerve to seal a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals with 2.1 overs to spare at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
Chris Gayle (49 not out, 44b, 4x4, 1x6) led the way again on a night when skipper Virat Kohli failed probably for the first time with the bat this season and AB de Villiers defied logic by throwing his wicket away cheaply again.
However, Gayle and Saurabh Tiwary (25 not out, 29b, 2x4, 1x6) impressed to finish the job after Tillakaratne Dilshan (25, 22b, 5x4, 0x6) provided the acceleration early on in the innings.
Earlier, Royals played the role of good visitors, handing RCB the advantage with a performance that lacked bite.
Asked to bat first, Rahul Dravid's men collapsed from promising positions before surrendering at 117 all out as RCB's pace quartet of R Vinay Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Ravi Rampaul and RP Singh accounted for nine Royals wickets.
Shane Watson was the first to go as he attempted an uppish drive off Ravi Rampaul only to find Murali Kartik at mid-off in the third over.
With Dravid playing the holding role, Ajinkya Rahane carted Rampaul for a six in the fifth over. Trying too hard to force the issue, he then perished for 14, skying Jaydev Unadkat's slower one to a waiting Dilshan at point.
The script then seemed perfect for Bangalore boys Stuart Binny and Dravid as they set about stabilizing the Royals innings. Binny quickly turned aggressor with a flat six behind square-leg in Murali Kartik's first over.
The Karnataka lad raced to 33 off 19 balls before trying to pull a widish one from Man-of-the-Match Vinay Kumar, offering wicketkeeper Arun Karthik an easy catch in the 10th over.
Dravid then sought to increase the scoring rate himself with a couple of neatly-timed boundaries. However, he fell victim to Kartik's persistent pressure in the 14th over.
Trying to clear the long-on boundary, Dravid (35, 31b, 5x4, 0x6) mistimed a full toss which went straight to Rampaul. The skipper's wicket was a deep gash in Royals' flesh at the time and the bleeding just didn't stop thereafter.
Jadeja powers Super Kings to victory
Kolkata, Apr 21: Chennai Super Kings made heavy weather of a small chase before Ravindra Jadeja's blitzkrieg powered the visitors to a four-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in a Pepsi Indian Premier League match here today.
Chasing a paltry 120, the Super Kings found themselves in a tight corner when they were reduced to 89 for six in the 17th over.
But Jadeja (36 off 14) meant business and used his long handle to great effect to wrap up the issue for CSK. He shared an unbeaten 35-run partnership with Dwayne Bravo (7) to guide CSK home.
Apart from Jadeja, Mike Hussey (40 off 51) played a sensible innings at the top to keep CSK in the hunt even thought wickets kept falling at the other end.
With CSK needing 27 runs from the last three overs, the Knight Riders brought in their trump card Sunil Narine in the 18th over, but Jadeja hit the bowler straight over his head for a huge six.
Jadeja got a huge reprieve when Yusuf Pathan dropped him at the square leg boundary as he continued his assault with three boundaries in Kallis' penultimate over that reduced the equation to two runs from the last over.
Jadeja was in no mood to relent even though the game was under their control. He pulled Pathan over midwicket boundary for another six to help the Super Kings wrap up the issue with five balls to spare.
Like Knight Riders, the Super Kings had a surprise up their sleeve when they sent Ravichandran Ashwin (11) to open the innings along with Hussey. But the move failed outrightly as the visitors had a sloppy start to their low chase.
Narine gave KKR breakthrough in the fifth over, dismissing Ashwin while Senanayake, who opened the proceedings with Balaji, ran through his four overs and gave the team their second wicket in the form of Murali Vijay (2).
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