Sports
In this episode of Howzzat!, brought to you by 9stacks, we take a look at Match 1 of the Vivo IPL 2019 - CSK vs RCB. This year's Vivo IPL got off to a rollercoaster start in Chennai. India's two captain-class leaders, CSK's Dhoni and RCB's Kohli met in this first match, and it was Dhoni's team that came out on top. In fact, they came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, starting the match with spinners completely dominating in the first 8 overs. In fact the whole of Bangalore's inning was mind-blowing to watch. The unexpected resurgence of Harbhajan Singh, who took 3 for 20 from his spell, and a whole lot of poor shot selection completely dismantled the batting lineup and removed Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers, completely deflating RCB morale. Imran Tahir then pounced to earn himself mad figures of 4 overs, 1 maiden, 9 runs and 3 wickets. The excitement surrounding Shimron Hetmyer will have to be satisfied on another day, after he got himself run out through a mixup with Parthiv Patel, who himself was the only one to get into double figures for his team. The opener almost carried his bat through the innings, before finally being the last man out. Looking at the fall of wickets as a Bangalore fan you might have become prone to a panic attack - 1-16, 2-28, 3-38, 4-39... It almost feels like a miracle that they even made it to 70 runs! In the second innings, with RCB trying to get on the front foot through their own spinners, Chennai also got off to a rocky start with Shane Watson being dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal for a duck. However, World Cup hopeful Ambati Rayudu steadied the ship and slowly worked his team forward. Suresh Raina batted himself to 5000 IPL runs before Kedar Jhadav and Jadeja saw out their team's first victory of the tournament on a slow and difficult pitch that, in the end, was criticised by both captains. Visitors to Chennai will have to be careful at this ground, and I'm sure it'll be interesting to see how the pitch and the home team's performance evolves and adapts here over the course of the IPL. Next, CSK travel to Delhi to face the Capitals on Tuesday, while Bangalore will have a lot to think about and work on before they host the Mumbai Indians on Thursday.