Royal Challengers Bengaluru ended their Chennai jinx in style, beating Chennai Super Kings there got the first time since the first IPL. By a whopping 50 runs, CSK’s biggest defeat at home. The contest was so dead that more than half of CSK’s chase was all about finding out if and when MS Dhoni would bat. He did so at No. 9, only for the second time in his career.The build-up was all about how RCB would tackle 12 overs of spin, but the conditions rolled out inverted the spotlight: how would CSK handle eight overs of traditional seam and swing from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood? Not every well, as their combined figures of 7-0-41-4 demonstrate.

And that after RCB’s batters dominated the CSK attack on what was not a straightforward pitch. Like Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar, Khaleel Ahmed drew seam movement and extra bounce, but CSK didn’t have any more such bowlers. Rajat Patidar led the innings, full of intent, capitalising on a dropped catch when he was 17 and scoring 51 off 32. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were allowed to bowl only five overs, for 59 runs.