3 Reasons why RCB lost to CSK in IPL eliminator

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced off against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Ranchi in the Indian Premier League (IPL) eliminator. Put in to bat, RCB could manage only 139 in the allotted 20 overs.

CSK looked completely at ease as they chased the target down with 3 wickets to spare. With this result, Chennai reached their 6^th IPL final in 8 attempts.

Here are the 3 reasons why RCB lost out to CSK:

1. Batsmen failed to fire

A lot was expected from both Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in this knock-out match, but both of them failed to leave an impact getting out cheaply on 12 and 1 respectively. Even Chris Gayle failed to get going despite playing for 43 balls, scoring 41. Even Mandeep Singh, RCB’s hero in their last encounter, failed to turn up scoring just 4 runs.

2 . Excellent captaincy by Captain Cool

Right from the start Dhoni did what he's known for. There were many instances of extremely good captaincy which proved to be fruitful.

Giving Nehra his 3^rd over on the trot even after being a touch expensive. He had given away 16 runs in his 2 overs. But, when he bowled his 3rd over and the 5^th over of the match, he took the 2 important wickets of Kohli and De Villiers, thus breaking RCB’s backbone.
Bowling out Ashwin in the beginning. Gayle was facing problems in attacking Ashwin as he was giving the ball quite a good amount of flight. Therefore, Dhoni used all his overs up front. Ashwin finished with stunning figures of 4-0-13-1 getting the wicket of Mandeep Singh.
Using Suresh Raina instead of Pawan Negi or Ravindra Jadeja against Gayle. This was one of the best decisions taken in this game. Gayle could have easily hit both Negi and Jaddu (both of them being left arm off break bowlers). In the end Raina got the better of Gayle getting him out on 41. This was MSD’s masterstroke.
Correct batting order – Sending in a clean hitter in the form of Negi ahead of Dwayne Bravo proved to be the moment of the match. The six that Negi hit off the bowling of Harshal Patel almost brought the match right into the laps of CSK. On the other hand, Bravo got out on the first ball he faced.

3 . RCB’s poor fielding

RCB failed to impress while fielding as they dropped 3 catches and missed some run outs as well. First of all, Chris Gayle dropped a sitter in the slips when Faf du Plessis was batting at just 1. Faf’s wicket at the time would have brought CSK under tremendous pressure, but the reprieve helped him score 20 runs after that. Harshal Patel was the culprit the second time responding too late.

Dinesh Karthik also had an off day behind the wickets. He dropped a catch and missed a stumping as well. Not only this, he gave away six byes, which could have made a difference in the end as CSK won with just 1 ball to spare.