Chennai Super Kings (CSK) ended their wait for a win in the ongoing IPL 2022 season, after they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 23 runs in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday (April 12).
Asked by RCB captain Faf du Plessis to bat first, CSK were struggling at 60/2 after 10 overs before Robin Uthappa (88) and Shivam Dube (95*) launched an incredible attack on the bowlers, smashing 17 sixes between them as CSK posted 216/4 with 156 runs coming in the final 10 overs.
RCB had their work cut out in the chase after Faf du Plessis (8), Virat Kohli (1) and Glenn Maxwell (26) fell cheaply to leave the side tottering at 50/4 in the 7th over. Shahbaz Ahmed (41), Suyash Prabhudessai (34) and Dinesh Karthik (34) did well to take the team to 193/9, reducing the margin of defeat to 23 runs. Mahesh Theekshana (4/33) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/39) were the best bowlers for CSK with the pitch offering some help for spinners.
WATCH - Ravindra Jadeja heaves a sigh of relief after the crucial catch of Dinesh Karthik
Mukesh Choudhary, the left-arm seamer, was having a memorable night having dismissed Kohli for 1, but things took a drastic turn when he dropped easy catches of Prabhudessai and Karthik off Dwayne Bravo and Theekshana respectively.
The 25-year-old looked shattered having led his teammates down as giving lives to well-set batters could have proven to be expensive for a team that had lost all of their first four matches.
Former captain MS Dhoni immediately rushed towards him when Theekshana dismissed Shahbaz to calm the youngster down and spoke few encouraging words. Though he bowled an expensive third over after that, CSK completed a comfortable win due to their batting heroics.
Dhoni's gesture won over the fans as they hailed him for identifying the need to talk to Mukesh, who was feeling disheartened after his dropped catches. Here are some of the tweets:
