Live Report - Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings, Bengaluru

The match has produced everything the expectant public would have asked for. Sixes galore, a tight finish, some good death bowling, and some spectacular batting from Conway, Rahane, Dube, du Plessis, Maxwell. How crucial was that possibly missed no-ball when MS Dhoni attempted a stumping? This was a rare match when I saw MS let emotion run his decision-making. He didn't show it, but he was probably a little ruffled.

A lot of memories from this match. That Moeen over where Faf was beginning to struggle with his rib injury and CSK accidentally discovered the ball was turning. He tossed up as a last resort, but then he saw the turn. And he got Faf out.

This is all we have for the Live Report. Thanks for joining us. We will be here same time, same place. Keep yourself hydrated.

It is incredible that in a defence of 226, it has taken CSK until the start of the 18th over to push the asking rate above two runs a ball. And it happens with Matheesha Pathirana getting Shahbaz Ahmed caught at long-off. It is 35 off 17 with Wayne Parnell coming in.

They are catching the flu. The flu that is dropped catches. Fielding matters very little, but that is when both teams are doing reasonably well as international teams should. Here Ruturaj Gaikwad is the latest to drop a sitter. Tushar Deshpande does really well to draw the cue-end of Dinesh Karthik with a slower one, but Gaikwad shells it at long-on.

Later in the over, Karthik hits a wide full toss straight to deep midwicket, but guess who is under the ball? It is Maheesh Theekshana, who has spilled two already. This time, though, he catches it. How is MS Dhoni managing to hide his emotions?

It is 36 off 19. And all the way from Goa comes the Impact Player: Suyash Prabhudesai with 36 required off 19.

A crucial stumping appeal off Ravindra Jadeja to Dinesh Karthik. he is well home, they showed only one replay, but, hey, am I the only one who thinks MS Dhoni's glove was slightly in front of the wicket when he collected the ball? Have they missed a no-ball there?

Here is the relevant law:

Moeen Ali starts the 14th over bowling flat, and is hit for two sixes. Just as an afterthought he flights the fifth ball, and gets appreciable turn to miss everything. Encouraged, he tosses up the sixth ball too, and this time Faf du Plessis gets a massive top edge on the slog. MS Dhoni again settles himself under a skier, and takes an identical catch. Now it is 159 for 4 in 14 overs. Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed are the new batters.

A rare rare desperate review from MS Dhoni. Shahbaz Ahmed is beaten on the reverse-sweep, but it is clear the ball has pitched outside leg from Maheesh Theekshana bowling from over the wicket. Still Dhoni goes for it. Is it a sign he is desperate, which he rarely is? RCB 146 for 3 in 13 overs.

And it's not Faf du Plessis. Massive edge on a slog-sweep, it goes right up, and for a moment it looks like Maheesh Theekshana's catch, which is a nervous thought for CSK. MS Dhoni, though, steps in, clears the vicinity, takes the catch, and points immediately to the spider cam that must have been very close to the ball. Imagine kissing the cable, and getting away with it. RCB 141 for 3 in 12.1 overs.

Faf du Plessis has been dropped twice. A straightforward return catch for Maheesh Theekshana, who has now dropped two catches. Glenn Maxwell rubs salt into the would with a slog-swept six next ball. RCB now 132 for 2 in 11. They are 37% favourites to win now.

Glenn Maxwell get6s there in 24 balls. Now both of the batters have faced 24 balls each for 52 and 51. "Incredible batting," says Michael Hussey in his sideline interview. The partnership is 99 in 7.3 overs. RCB's win probability has gone from low 10s when they started to 30% now. It doesn't seem like CSK are 70% favourites, but you never know what a wicket can do here.

An interesting perspective from Shiva Jayaraman on CSK's habit of taking it easy in the first over. Here you go.

"Chennai Super Kings notched up their third-highest total in the IPL and their highest against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but in response the home team dashed off the blocks shaving off a third of the target inside the Powerplay despite losing two wickets. The fact that Super Kings’ total of 226 is only the joint-fourth highest total at Chinnaswamy Stadium shows how relentless the run-scoring has to be if teams are to entertain any thoughts of winning at this venue.

In comparison, Super Kings managed 53 runs in their Powerplay. Two overs – the first and the third – produced just three runs each for them. While Ruturaj Gaikwad’s wicket could have slowed down things a bit in the third over, it’s been a pattern with Super Kings to take things easy in the first over of innings.

The first over has been an easy win for the opposition against them this season. Super Kings have managed to just one boundary off the 30 balls from the first overs in IPL 2023. No other teams has hit fewer boundaries. Their batters have been strike-rate of just 60.0 in the first over. Those six deliveries are gold dust in a high-scoring game like this. These are the fine margins such games are often decided on."

Faf du Plessis has brought up his second-fastest IPL fifty, in just 23 balls. He has matched, and probably beaten, Glenn Maxwell shot for shot. RCB 105 for 2 in just nine overs. This is a sensational innings. Don't forget he was dropped for a duck by MS Dhoni. He also looks a little injured. Probably in the lower back.

Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis are ripping into the CSK seamers after those two early wickets. These are score logs from 2.4 to the end of the fifth over. RCB 61 for 2. That du Plessis miss is looking very costly.

Virat Kohli got out in an unlucky manner, but CSK have dropped two sitters of the two other batters. Mahipal Lomror is dropped at mid-off by Mahessh Theekshana, and MS Dhoni doesn't even get a hand at a straightforward chance from Faf du Plessis.

Lomror is not in any mood to accept freebies as he lobs one to cover-point at the end of the second over. What's more, du Plessis, who was off the field at the end of the innings, might not be fully fit. It's 15 for 2 in two overs.

At the start of the chase, Akash Singh replaces Ambati Rayudu in the CSk XI, and bowls the first over. Virat Kohli looks in the mood by stepping down and trying to hit boundaries every ball. To the fourth ball, he looks to make room to go over cover because MS Dhoni has placed a cow corner. Akash follows him, cramps him, gets a bottom edge onto the front heel and the ball dribbles onto the off stump. RCB 61 for 1 in 0.4 overs.

I have aged since the last over started. It is 10 overs long, and bowled by two bowlers. Harshal Patel bowls a wide and two beamers in the first half, and is taken off. Glenn Maxwell bowls the last four, and bowls one wide himself. In between Ravindra Jadeja got out, and the crowd went wild at the sight of MS Dhoni coming out to bat. Dhoni ends up 1 off 1. Just the one six in that final over, and CSK end with 226 for 6. It is CSK's third-highest total in the IPL, and their highest since 2011.

Amid all the carnage, Mohammed Siraj has been superb once again with his two powerplay overs, the 14th and the 19th. The 19th over has gone for just 10 despite going for six first ball. He followed it up with superb wide yorkers with deep third quite square to cut off the slice.

The other day he took three wickets on debut, and tonight Vijaykumar Vyshak has gone for 62 in hour overs. Only one RCB bowler - Josh Hazlewood - has gone for more in a match. In all, 13 bowlers have conceded morein an innings in the IPL. The worst is 70 by Basil Thampi. CSK 200 for 5 in 18 overs.

Five sixes and two fours in 25 balls, and Shivam Dube has reached 52. As he has done previously, he is showing he loves the RCB attack. Two balls later, Dube plays an incredible shot, nearly lifting a near-yorker for six by leaning back, but he has found Mohammed Siraj at the fence at deep midwicket. CSK 178 for 4 in 16.3 overs.

Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu at the wicket now.

Thye dipping loopy yorker at 121ks from Harshal Patel finally gets rid of Devon Conway for 83 off 45. Six sixes and four fours in that innings, a boundary every 3.75 balls. CSK 170 for 3 in 15.4 overs. Is anything under 230 defendable here?

Devon Conway gets to his fifty in 32 balls. He led the attack early, then took a back seat when Ajinkya Rahane was going, and against spin he has switched gears again. He has scored 16 off seven Hasaranga deliveries. CSK 97 for 2 in 10 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane doesn't pick a Wanindu Hasaranga wrong'un and is bowled. The good thing is that he is trying to hit a six off it. Rahane post powerplay has been a big change from the old Rahane. He keeps going for it now. Out for 37 off 20. CSK 90 for 2 in 9.3 overs.

Mohammed Siraj has added another wicket to his kitty. this time it Ruturaj Gaikwad caught trying to hit a six over square leg. It makes it four wickets at 4.41 an over in the powerplay this year for Siraj. He has bowled 62 balls inside the powerplay for just 53 runs. There are 50 dots in there. Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh and Trent Boult have taken more wickets than him but only Boult has gone at under a run a ball. Marco Jansen has taken tour wickets and conceded 5 an over.

If you freeze the frame at the end of the follow-through of the bat when Devon Conway whips one through midwicket, you will think he has left one alone. Everybody at the ground knows, though, that he has hit a four. followed by a ramp for a six. CSK 16 for 0 in two overs.

Huge cheers for MS Dhoni even though he loses the toss and is asked to bat first by the local captain Faf du Plessis. Both the captains reckon it is going to be difficult to defend a score. Du Plessis announces an unchanged XI, but says they have "tricks up their sleeves" with the substitutions.

CSK have made one forced change with the injury to Sisanda Magala paving the way for Matheesha Pathirana's slingers.

Here are the XIs.

CSK RD Gaikwad, DP Conway, AM Rahane, S Dube, MM Ali, RA Jadeja, MS Dhoni*†, TU Deshpande, M Theekshana, AT Rayudu, M Pathirana

RCB V Kohli, F du Plessis*, MK Lomror, GJ Maxwell, KD Karthik†, Shahbaz Ahmed, HV Patel, PWH de Silva, WD Parnell, Mohammed Siraj, V Vyshak