Ravindra Jadeja's all-round brilliance lifts CSK to top of table

A stunning assault of 36 runs off his bat in the final over, the prize wickets of Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers, and a spectacular direct hit to run out Dan Christian made Ravindra Jadeja the star as the Chennai Super Kings handed the Royal Challengers Bangalore their first loss of IPL 2021. With their fourth straight win in five games, the Super Kings also snatched the top table position with a 69-run win in Mumbai.

Jadeja first launched five sixes in the Super Kings' final over to lift them from 154 to 191 and then bowled Maxwell and de Villiers in consecutive overs to reduce the Royal Challengers to 83 for 6 that effectively ended the chase with Virat Kohli already back in the pavilion for 8. Devdutt Padikkal threatened to take control of the chase with an attacking 34 off 15 that gave the Royal Challengers a powerful score of 65 in the powerplay, but the loss of four wickets in four overs after that did irreparable damage to their pursuit. Jadeja also dismissed No. 3 Washington Sundar for 7 in his match-winning figures of 3 for 13 and Imran Tahir's double blow before the Royal Challengers could reach 100 effectively sealed the Super Kings' win.

Another du Plessis fifty lays platform
Fa du Plessis struck his second consecutive fifty and gave the Super Kings, who opted to bat, a solid start by clearing the in-field with ease against the fast bowlers. He caressed the first ball he faced through the covers and then lofted Mohmmed Siraj over long-on and Kyle Jamieson twice on the off side to set the tone for his team-mates.

Ruturaj Gaikwad played second fiddle for the first four overs before attacking Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini to give the Super Kings a powerplay score of 51 for 0.

Jadeja hammers 37 RUNS - equalling the highest runs scored in an over ever in the IPL https://t.co/YQD9dMoXXE | #CSKvRCB | #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/cUajcCf1Ym

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) April 25, 2021

Patel takes the pace off the ball and CSK
Kohli had said at the toss they brought in Saini to "go hard at the batsman in the middle overs" with his pace but the exact opposite happened. Saini got only two overs for leaking 27 runs as his pace helped the Super Kings batters clear the short boundaries with ease. Becoming only the second team to opt to bat at Wankhede in the IPL since 2018, the Super Kings cruised to 83 for 1 at the halfway mark after Gaikwad fell for 33. Suresh Raina, promoted to No. 3 in the absence of the injured Moeen Ali, had already smashed three sixes in the first 15 balls he faced and the Super Kings were ready to launch from 110 for 1 after 12 overs.

Patel soon put the brakes on them by dismissing the well-set du Plessis and Raina off consecutive balls. With both batters offered back-of-length cutters, Raina found deep midwicket and du Plessis holed out to long-on. The Super Kings could have even been 112 for 4 had Christian not dropped a sitter at deep midwicket when Jadeja was on 0. The next ball also saw a misfield - from Padikkal - and Jadeja made the Royal Challengers pay for it.

The Jadeja death over
On 154 for 4 after 19 overs, Jadeja heaved Patel, this season's highest-wicket taker, for four merciless sixes on the trot on the leg side. Whether it was a slower ball, a cutter or an attempted yorker, Jadeja kept smashing them towards the deep midwicket boundary. The third ball of the over was a no-ball for being a high full toss, and after Jadeja retained strike with a double off the over's fourth legitimate ball, he went on to smoke a fifth six, over long-on, before finishing the over with a one-bounce four behind square on the leg side to take the over's tally to 37.

The Jadeja show continues
Until Padikkal was batting, it looked like he would run away with the chase like he did against the Rajasthan Royals three days ago. With a combination of flourishing drives, pick-up shots and fluent strokes he tore into Deepak Chahar and Sam Curran to race to 34 off 14 before handing a catch to deep backward square leg off Shardul Thakur's short ball in the fifth over. Kohli had already edged Curran behind two overs ago and the chase now rested on Maxwell and de Villiers.

And Jadeja hit the stumps when both were batting. Maxwell first lost his leg stump by missing a slog-sweep, on 22, in the ninth over and de Villiers saw the ball turn past his outside edge to knock his middle stump two overs later. Jadeja had his arms in the air, the Royal Challengers had their top six dismissed, and the Super Kings were truly on top.

Between those two big wickets, Jadeja also swooped in from cover to smash the stumps down at the wicketkeeper's end that found Christian short of his ground in the 10th over.