Ambati Rayudu and captain MS Dhoni  guided Chennai Super Kings’ to the top of Indian Premier League points table with a five-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore yesterday.
Dhoni (70 not out) smashed seven sixes and a four and featured in a match-winning century stand with Ambati Rayudu (82) as Chennai reached 207-5 with two balls to spare.
Earlier, South Africans AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock’s struck breezy half centuries to power Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a mammoth 205/8.
De Kock (53, 37 balls; 4x1, 6x4) played the perfect supporting role in the 103-run second wicket stand with de Villiers (68 off 30; 4x2, 6x8), who started from the word go to bring up his half century in just 23 deliveries.
Put in to bat, RCB got off to a decent 35-run start by skipper Virat Kohli (18) and de Kock before Shardul Thakur saw the back of the Indian captain, thanks to a smart catch by Ravindra Jadeja. But the visitors wouldn’t have imagined what was coming their way, as de Villiers started off by clobbering Harbhajan Singh for two consecutive sixes before launching left-arm spinner Jadeja to the skies.
Such was the dominance from the former Proteas skipper that the hosts raced to 87/1 midway into the innings, with both de Villiers and de Kock nearing their respective fifties.
Despite being overshadowed by his senior partner, the southpaw brought up his half century in style, tonking Shane Watson for a six over deep mid-wicket.
On the first ball of the very next over, de Villiers, who had earlier clobbered leg-spinner Imran Tahir for two massive sixes, took Thakur to the cleaners thrice consecutively to bring up his half century. 
With both the RCB batsmen going hammer and tongs, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni threw the ball to his West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, and the “Champion” responded in style by packing back de Kock with a smart catch off his own follow through. Tahir then joined the party by bagging the prized scalp of de Villiers and new man Corey Anderson (2) in the very next over to restore parity into the match.
De Villiers miscued Tahir’s tossed-up delivery pitched outside off-stump for Sam Billings to complete the formalities at deep cover. 
Tahir immediately got rid of New Zealand’s Anderson with a googly as Harbhajan Singh completed a brilliant catch at slip. 
With the hosts comfortably placed at 142/4, Mandeep Singh (32 off 17; 4x1, 6x3) and Colin de Grandhomme (11) struck a few lusty blows towards the end, even as two run-outs and a wicket in the final over could not stop RCB from crossing the 200-run mark.
“I thought it was a difficult chase when I saw AB batting to see them over 200, I thought it was 15-20 beyond par. We also lost some key batsmen early but it’s a small ground, the ball travels a lot here, there was some dew, not a lot. 
“Overall, it went according to the script, not according to how we would have thought but went well,” said Dhoni.

Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 207 for 5 (Rayudu 82, MS Dhoni 70*) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 205 for 8 (De Villiers 68, De Kock 53, Bravo 2-33) by five wickets.




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