BANGALORE, April 29: Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from the front, scoring an outstanding half-century to guide Chennai Super Kings to a 13-run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers in their Indian Premier League match on Monday.

Dhoni hit a fabulous 30-ball 65, with nine fours and three sixes in the able company of Michael Hussey (47 off 38 balls) to take his team to a competitive 178-5 in their allotted 20 overs, even as the other Chennai Super Kings batsmen struggled for the most part of the innings, after Dhoni opted to bat first.

Dhoni and Hussey shared a crucial 95-run stand for the fourth wicket.

In reply, Bangalore Royal Challengers got off to a flying start and at one stage it looked like the hosts would simply run away with the match but the Chennai Super Kings bowlers, led by Manpreet Gony (3-34), suddenly turned the tide, triggering a well-scripted collapse.

From 127-2 in 14 overs, Bangalore could just manage to add another 34 runs in the next five overs, losing seven wickets in the process.

Gony got the crucial breakthrough for Chennai Super Kings when in his one over he saw off both Mark Boucher (4) and skipper Rahul Dravid (0) to push Bangalore on to the back foot.

Needing 17 to win in the last over, the local favourites got bundled out for 165 with two balls to spare.

Bangalore Royal Challengers lost opener Chipli early, but Wasim Jaffer played a fine knock of 50 off just 33 balls, even though he was dropped twice at 7 and 18.

In fact, Jaffer and Ross Taylor (53 off 34 balls) put on 89 runs together for the second wicket to lay a perfect platform for their team, bringing up 102-2 in 11 overs. But their efforts just went in vain.

Chennai Super Kings, who opted for an all pace attack, bringing in Albie Morkel in place of Muttiah Muralitharan got the desired result. Apart from Gony, Joginder Sharma (2-27) and Palani Amarnath (2-37) also returned impressive figures, while Morkel took 1-38.

Earlier, an excellent effort by Bangalore Royal Challengers bowling unit, who left out Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi for this match, never let Chennai Super Kings batsmen flourish, initially and the visitors could manage to bring up their 100 only in the 15th over.

But some late smashing by Hussey and Man-of-the-Match Dhoni put them back on track and in the penultimate over, the skipper took 24 runs of Dale Steyn’s over, which ultimately proved to be the difference in the game.

Earlier, the openers — Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel failed to give the kind of start Chennai Super Kings wanted.

Up against a fine pace bowling unit of Zaheer Khan (3-38) and Praveen Kumar, Chennai Super Kings found it hard to get into the rhythm and lost both the openers early.

Suresh Raina (28) though was playing well but got unlucky to get run-out.

However, thereafter, Hussey continued to play his shorts well but Dhoni adopted a cautious approach but one he got into the groove, he overtook his partner and in no time reached his fifty.

Chennai Super Kings now are leading the points table with all four wins to their credit, while Bangalore Royal Challengers have managed to bag just one match out of four they have played so far.

Summarised scores:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS 178-5 in 20 overs (Mahendra Singh Dhoni 65, Michael Hussey 47, Suresh Raina 28; Zaheer Khan 3-38); BANGALORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS 165 in 19.4 overs (Ross Taylor 53, Wasim Jaffer 50; Manpreet Gony 3-34, Joginder Sharma 2-27, Palani Amarnath 2-38).—Agencies