SYNOPSIS: Tim David’s sixes the highlight in a power-packed batting performance by RCB as they registered a fourth win on the trot against CSK
Ahead of the season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s director of cricket Mo Babat had sounded out a warning. “We don’t want to be defending champions. We want to be attacking champions.” On Sunday, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium against Chennai Super Kings, his team showed that the weight of the defending champions tag isn’t going to be a burden. It is a venue that has seen many a six-hitting exhibition from Chris Gayle to AB de Villiers. And joining them was Tim David, who hit 8 sixes as his unbeaten 70 off 25 deliveries powered them to a fourth successive win in the Southern Derby.
RCB vs CSK – IPL 2026 Match Highlights
For Chennai, this already looks like a long season as they were annihilated. An imbalanced squad once again got thoroughly outplayed. They remained in the game till the 10th over of RCB’s innings and from there on wandered around like lost men, conceding 159 runs in the second half, then ending up 30/3 inside three overs in a massive chase of 250. Sarfaraz Khan’s 50 and Prashant Veer’s 43 were the only sparks on a losing night.
Salt assault
Made to bat first, RCB didn’t have the best of starts. Up against a weak bowling unit, Phil Salt and Virat Kohli tried too hard to put the bowlers under pressure, and it led to a few mishits as CSK seamers did a commendable job up front. Hitting the hard length, they didn’t concede a single boundary in the first three overs. And in the fourth over, Kohli got RCB fans going with a classic whip, the wrists doing all the magic to send the ball over the ropes. From there on, RCB would start injecting momentum into their innings before it reached a crescendo in the most ruthless fashion.
Having conceded 51 runs in the powerplay and seen the back of Kohli, CSK were still in some sort of control. Devdutt Padikkal, like the openers, struggled for fluency. Off the first 16 deliveries he faced, he had only 17 to his name. But Salt’s assaults were just about getting the job done for RCB until he fell to Shivam Dube in the 11th over when they were going at just under 9 runs per over. The projected score at that stage was very much on par. Out of 93 runs RCB had scored then, Salt had made 46 off 30.
Devdutt Padikkal smashes his second half-century in succession. (CREIMAS)
The carnage
The arrival of Rajat Patidar is where it all started to go downhill for CSK. It also happened to be the moment where CSK made the first of many tactical calls, which exposed Ruturaj Gaikwad’s captaincy too. When he gave the ball to Dube, who had just bowled three overs in the IPL since the start of 2022, it was a make-or-break moment. By removing Salt, Dube had done the job. He may have improved his bowling and is used by India regularly, but on the flat decks of IPL, he can be a liability. After removing Salt, Dube conceded a boundary to Padikkal that opened the floodgates.
In the space of 16 deliveries, Padikkal and Patidar scored 50 runs, which included five sixes and three boundaries. Off the second delivery that Patidar faced, he hit a six over cover off Noor Ahmad. Padikkal, who was struggling for timing, appeared a different batsman once he found the boundary of Dube as he raced to his fifty off 28 deliveries before falling soon. At the other end, Patidar was putting up a show of his own. The captain who brought them the first title, he walked in with an air of confidence and owned the turf. Off his first 7 deliveries, he had three sixes, and in the over after Padikkal was dismissed, Patidar had hammered Khaleel Ahmed for 19 runs. CSK wanted Patidar off strike.
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When they did that, Tim David’s avalanche of sixes buried CSK. And he had to start with his least favourable match-up, fronting up to the spin of Noor. On a venue where there is very little margin of error, he erred slightly, but that was enough for David to pummel him for three successive sixes to different parts. David, who was bowled by Anshul Kamboj in the next over as he overstepped, made the most of it. Bowling the 19th over, David clobbered Jamie Overton for 6, 2, 4, 6, 6, 6. Each of the sixes was bigger than the previous and deflating, and the last one sailed over the roof. 97 came off the last five overs. There was no stopping RCB.
Brief scores: RCB: 250/3 (Tim David 70*, Devdutt Padikkal 50, Anshul Kamboj 1/52) beat CSK: 207 in 19.4 ovs (Sarfaraz Khan 50, Prashant Veer 43, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/41) by 43 runs
