BANGALORE: Ravindra Jadeja's allround effort highlighted the Chennai Super Kings' comfortable victory over Deccan Chargers while Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.
Jadeja seemed to justify his $2 million tag at this year's auctions as he slammed 48 in Chennai's huge total of 193-6 and then bagged 5-16 as Deccan folded for 119 in 17.1 overs at Rajasakhera Reddy Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Jadeja propped up the innings in the company of South African Faf de Plessis (39) but the score was really propelled by West Indian allrounder Dwayne Bravo's brisk 43 off 18 balls with five sixes, three of them in an over from former Chennai pace bowler Manpreet Gony.
Jadeja then varied his trajectory well to fox batsmen who had no option but to go for big hits in the face of a galloping asking rate. His victims included Parthiv Patel and Australia's big-hitting batsman Cameron White.
Chennai had lost to Mumbai Indians in its only earlier game while it was the first game of the season for Deccan.
At Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium, AB de Villiers propelled the home team to 157-8 with his well-paced knock of 64 not out. Veteran spinner Muttiah Muralitharan then stifled the opposition with 3-25 in his first game for Bangalore, which won by 20 runs.
De Villiers smashed six fours and two sixes after Australian opener Andrew McDonald had produced a brisk innings of 30 off 19 deliveries.
The home side, without star West Indian batsman Chris Gayle because of a lingering groin injury, was struggling at 59-4 in the ninth over. But De Villiers batted himself in with singles and twos before the onslaught.
He hit seam bowler Irfan Pathan for a six and a four off successive balls in the 19th over of the innings with superbly executed reverse sweeps off full tosses.
In reply, the Delhi team got off to a flying start as Australian batsman Aaron Finch produced three consecutive fours through the offside off pace bowler Zaheer Khan but captain Virender Sehwag was out for a first-ball duck in the same over.
Finch (25) and Naman Ojha (33) added 42 runs for the second wicket before both were dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan and Delhi faced an uphill task by the time Pathan (24) came in at number seven.
This was Bangalore's first game of the season, while Delhi had beaten Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets in its first outing.
Scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore 157-8 in 20 overs (A.B. de Villiers 64 not out, Andrew McDonald 30; Doug Bracewall 3-32, Morne Morkel 2-30) def. Delhi Daredevils 137-7 in 20 overs (Naman Ojha 33, Aaron Finch 25, Irfan Pathan 24; Muttiah Muralitharan 3-25).
Chennai Super Kings 193-6 in 20 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 48, Dwayne Bravo 43 not out, Faf de Plessis 39, Subramaniam Badrinath 25; Dale Steyn 2-25, Daniel Christian 2-26) def. Deccan Chargers 119 all out in 17.1 overs (Cameron White 23; Ravindra Jadeja 5-16, Shadab Jakati 2-14, Doug Bollinger 2-20).
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