A brilliant unbeaten 90 by captain Virat Kohli powered Royal Challenger Bangalore to 169 for 4 and in reply, Chennai Super Kings only managed to reach 132/8. The 37-run win is RCB’s biggest ever over CSK and it was a fully deserved one.
CSK’s chase never took off with only Rayudu, 42 off 40, and Jagadeesan, 33 off 28, getting among the runs but even they were unable to force the pace.
For RCB, Chris Morris bowled brilliantly to finish with match figures of 3/19 in his four overs. Washington Sundar (2/16) and Navdeep Saini also turned in superb spells.
Earlier, Kohli, who walked in at the fall of Aaron Finch in the third over, led from the front with a majestic 52-ball knock that was the finest blend of skill and peak fitness.
His innings had four fours and as many sixes but in searing Dubai humidity ran four doubles in the final over, a testament to the hours put in training.
The RCB captain was involved in two half-century partnerships - one with opener Devdutt Padikkal (33 off 33 balls) and Shivam Dube (22 off 14 balls) for the fifth wicket, an unbeaten 76-run stand, which powered the total.
The last five overs yielded 74 runs as the CSK bowlers appeared to falter after having allowed RCB to score only 95 in the first 15 as Kohli and the left-handed Dube went on the overdrive.
Deepak Chahar finished with 1 for 10 from three overs while Shardul Thakur (2/40) was the best in terms of wickets. Veteran Dwayne Bravo (0/29 in three overs) again showed his value by being economical at the death.
RCB did not get off to a rapid start as the CSK bowlers kept them on a leash after an out-of-sorts Aaron Finch (2) went early.
Young Padikkal and skipper Kohli kept the scoreboard ticking but there were no big hits to be seen. Padikkal hoisted leggie Karn Sharma for a huge six in the 10th over.
However, his attempt to clear mid-off did not materialise as he ended up giving a catch to Faf du Plessis to give Thakur his first wicket.
Three balls later, Thakur struck a huge blow for CSK, getting AB de Villiers to nick one to Dhoni with a cross-seam delivery with the South African ace not troubling the scorers.
Earlier, CSK made one change by handing N Jagadeesan a debut in place of the struggling Kedar Jadhav while RCB made a couple of changes bringing in Chris Morris and Gurkeerat Singh for Moeen Ali and Mohd Siraj respectively.
Watch full highlights of the match here: