CSK vs RCB, Live blog: Mustafizur extends CSK's dominance over RCB

There might have been a minor blip in the middle but this has been a dominant showing from CSK to stretch their dominant home against RCB, who last beat them in Chennai back in the inaugural season of the IPL. Since then CSK have won all eight matches against RCB at home.

It is also a great start to the captaincy career or Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was told a week ago that he would be captaining CSK this IPL.

Faf du Plessis started like a high-speed train, but the spinners and Mustafizur Rahman pulled them back in the middle overs. The damage done was so much that even a 95-run stand off 50 balls to end the innings gave RCB only a below-par total.

Once Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra got off to a quick start, this was always going to be a straightforward chase except for the short-ball barrage in the middle that tested CSK for a while. Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja, though, saw them home with ease eventually.

Thanks for joining us for the first match of the IPL; we have two coming tomorrow, same place, same time.

At the start of his innings, RCB managed to tie down Shivam Dube at the start of the innings, but possibly because the asking rate was in control, Dube could afford to weather the storm. Once he got a hang of it, Dube started to use the pace to his advantage. He has gone from 7 off 13 to 25 off 23 as CSK need just 10 off the last two overs. A calming influence has been Ravindra Jadeja, who showed him the way by steering the short balls down as opposed to looking for sixes every time. The short ball against Dube, especially with two bouncers allowed, will remain a theme this IPL, but he has managed to pass the first test. Just about.

The Chepauk track has gotten slower and RCB are using it to their advantage. Cameron Green is bowling cutters into the pitch and one such slower, short ball has Mitchell holing out to long-on for 22 off 18 balls. Joseph has taken the pitch out of the equation, though, with his rapid pace and bounce. Joseph continues to attack Dube's upper body. Dube is struggling to get him away. With two left-handers in the middle - Dube and Jadeja - Faf matches Maxwell's offspin up with them. CSK need 60 off 42 balls.

In the lead-up to the season, Steyn spoke to Nagraj Gollapudi about how the two-bouncer rule could be a weapon for bowlers.

Ravindra departs for 15. Daz Mitchell arrives.

He was originally a pace-hitter, having played club cricket in Perth, when his dad John Mitchell was coaching Western Force. He has now transformed himself into an elite spin-hitter.

He hit the first ball he faced in Chepauk for six, in the ODI World Cup last year. He announces himself in the IPL in Chennai by smashing legspinner Karn Sharma for back-to-back sixes down the ground. Daz hitting the ball down the ground is a thing of beauty.

He usually starts quickly against spin, which is why CSK splurged INR 14 crore on him. Which is also why he is playing ahead of Moeen Ali . Which is also why Texas Super Kings have signed him up for MLC 2024.

Ajinkya Rahane was coming into the IPL on the back of a poor Ranji season: he had managed only 214 runs in 13 innings at an average of 17.83. It was one of the worst seasons in his 17-year career. He then turns up at CSK and flicks on the T20 mode. When Dayal bowls a hard-length delivery - it's a hard-to-hit delivery - Rahane effortlessly launches him over mid-off for six. He runs away to 17 off 12 balls

Left-arm seamer Yash Dayal, who replaces Dinesh Karthik, strikes in his second over to have Gaikwad wafting behind to Green at first slip for 15. Ravindra, meanwhile, has motored along to 22 off nine balls. He turns up the tempo even further when he hooks Joseph's first ball over backward square leg for six. Ravindra, like Conway, isn't a power-hitter and has a limited body of work in T20 cricket so far, but is a skillful disruptor. He just finds ways to score.

Gaikwad dispatches the first ball he faces as the CSK captain to the midwicket boundary. Siraj digs the ball into the Chepauk pitch, but it's not high enough to pose a threat to Gaikwad. He takes this hip-high delivery swivel-pulls it over square leg for a first-ball four. Siraj then goes fuller in search of some swing, but Gaikwad gets closer to the pitch and drives it in the little gap between point and cover-point with laser-guided precision. Faf packed the off-side infield for his former opening partner, but Gaikwad still found the gap.

Gaikwad's new opening partner Rachin Ravindra also begins with a first-ball four though it was off a thick inside edge.

The local boy playing in red and blue has made a match of this. Dinesh Karthik is playing his final season of IPL and it starts at his home ground. Coming in at 78 for 5, when all the stars were already back in the hut, he's dragged RCB to 173 for 6 in 20 overs.

It's been a vintage innings. Plenty of invention against fast bowling, trying to scoop a few balls, hoping to manipulate their lines and lengths and when its in the slog, he planted that front foot down and kept going bang.

Maheesh Theekshana is wondering where he needs to field. He's loitering somewhere at fine leg, halfway to the boundary and he is trying to catch the captain's attention.

Ruturaj Gaikwad is at mid-off, talking to the bowler Tushar Deshpande. It takes a while for him to realise he is needed by somebody else but by the time he looks up, MS Dhoni has already stepped in.

Theekshana was asked to head off to the boundary. He waits until Gaikwad gives the same signal and finally off he went.

The CSK coach Stephen Fleming, at the pre-match press conference, basically said he has too good a brain for cricket to turn it off. So his influence on the game will still be here and so it was. He had a chat with Ravindra Jadeja just before he came on to bowl today. He has been active in setting fields, not necessarily deciding on positions, but deciding on angles. Those 1m, 2m adjustments for which, last season, he said he liked the players to always keep an eye on him. Looks like that instruction might still be valid this year.

RCB went 29 balls without a boundary. CSK's spinners and Mustafizur were applying the Chepauk chokehold on RCB. The crowd got right behind CSK. Rawat then silences the crowd with two fours in six balls, including a ramped four off Dhoni's head off Chahar. RCB are 102 for 5 in 15 overs.

This is turning out to be a grand CSK debut for Mustafizur. His current figures read 1.4-0-6-4. The Bangladesh left-arm seamer might not have even played had Pathirana been fit. After dismissing Faf and Patidar in his first over, he comes back to take out Kohli and Green in his second.

Kohli tries to drag a pull against the angle from left-arm over but he does not have enough pace to work with. He holes out at deep midwicket, with Rahane combining with Ravindra for a tag-team catch. Mustafizur then knocks Green over with a whippy cutter.

Chennai boy DK runs into CSK at Chepauk, with RCB at 78 for 5 in the 12th over.

Kohli's first attempt to hit a boundary comes off his 14th ball, in the tenth over. He picks up a half-tracker from mystery spinner Theekshana and wallops a six over midwicket. Kohli's strike rate goes over 100, but Green is still operating at less than a run-a-ball. RCB are 75 for 3 in ten overs.

Two CSK debutants Mustafizur and Ravindra combine to cut Faf's innings short at 35 off 23 balls. After Faf stayed leg-side of the ball and repeatedly pumped the ball over the top, Mustafizur and Gaikwad pushed extra-cover to sweeper cover and moments later, du Plessis holed out to Ravindra in the outfield. In the same over, Mustafizur finds extra bounce to hit the outside edge near the shoulder of the bat. Catching practice for Dhoni. RCB are 41 for 2 in five overs. Mustafizur picks up two wickets in his first over for CSK. Kohli, meanwhile, has faced just three balls for four runs.

More catching practice for Dhoni as Maxwell guides Chahar straight into the gloves. Maxwell also gone for a duck. RCB slip further to 42 for 3 in the sixth over.

RCB captain and former Chennai Super King Faf gets going with three fours, but there is pin-drop silence at Chepauk. The crowd then finds its voice when Dhoni dives across to his left, tests out his knee, and stops the ball with one hand. In IPL 2023, Dhoni had functioned on just one leg and though this is just the first night of a new season, Dhoni is appearing more comfortable in the middle.

Dhoni draws more cheers as he sets point and deep third for Theekshana. Gaikwad is fielding at midwicket. Okay, the point fielder is in business almost right away. Rizvi makes a diving stop. Dhoni quietly applauds the debutant.

Faf du Plessis wins the toss in what is his first game as an opposition player in Chennai and elects to bat. The pitch has some cracks and will likely get slower as the game progresses. CSK hand out new caps to Ravindra, Mitchell, Mustafizur and Rizvi. SL mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana is the fourth overseas player for CSK. This means there is no room for Moeen Ali. Matheesha Pathirana, who is working his way back from a hamstring injury, is yet to join the CSK side.

Former Super King Karn Sharma will line up for RCB, with Mayank Dagar, Virender Sehwag's nephew, being the other spinner in RCB's XI.

CSK: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad(capt), 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Ravindra Jadeja, 6 Sameer Rizvi, 7 MS Dhoni(wk), 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Tushar Deshpande

Impact subs: Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Moeen Ali

RCB: 1 Faf du Plessis(capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Dinesh Karthik(wk), 7 Anuj Rawat, 8 Karn Sharma, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Mayank Dagar, 11 Mohammed Siraj

Impact subs: Yash Dayal, Akash Deep, Suyash Prabhudessai, Swapnil Singh, Vyshak Vijaykumar

All eyes are on Dhoni as he takes the keeping gloves with his long hair flowing in the breeze. On the other side, CSK's back-up keeper Aravelly Avanish is also doing some keeping drills. At the RCB camp, fast bowler Alzarri Joseph has marked his run-up. Faf works well with him, having captained him at St Lucia Kings (CPL) and Joburg Super Kings (SA20). Virat Kohli, meanwhile, is taking some catches near the boundary.

The toss has been delayed to 7.40pm though the captains have been out and ready. However, we're still looking at an 8pm IST start.

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It's time to welcome the two captains: Dhoni Gaikwad and CSK's old friend Faf, who has shed his yellow for RCB's red in the IPL. The crowd warms up to the new CSK captain as he brings the IPL trophy with him. Once, another Gaikwad with Maharashtrian roots, a certain Shivaji Rao, went on to become a household name in Chennai. That's some way away, but for now this Gaikwad has the keys to the Chennai kingdom. The fireworks are going off at Chepauk.

Remember Shawn Michael's sensational WrestleMania XII entrance? Bollywood stars Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff tried to somewhat replicate it by coming down a zipline onto the stage. The pair then cede the stage to local boy AR Rahman, who draws massive cheers from the Chepauk crowd. His first Tamil song is from a Ranjinikanth movie, of course, Sivaji. The crowd continues to groove with Rahman as he belts out Nee Singham thaan (You are a lion) from the Silambarasan starrer Pathu Thala. The Chepauk DJ often belted out Nee Singham thaan last season, too, especially when Dhoni walked out for the toss. The bass from the music is almost making the press box shake. Chants of "CSK!CSK!CSK!" replace the bass shortly after. IT IS ELECTRIFYING AT THE CHEPAUK!

Being a CSK fan, it can be argued, is like being a fan of Australia's cricket teams. It's a privilege, they win a lot and you can easily get behind them. If that's not enough, there's MS Dhoni. Yup, that's cricketing checkmate. And being an RCB fan teaches you what it is to be a hopeless romantic. The women have changed that with the WPL win, and now the men will hope to do the same. CSK have the edge over RCB, especially at home. They've got Thala, but RCB have the king. It has all the ingredients for a perfect start, so let's get cookin'!