Smith, Bravo, Russell on winning sides despite failures

CHENNAI, India, CMC – Both West Indies opener Dwayne Smith and teammate Dwayne Bravo failed with the bat but Chennai Super Kings did just enough to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 24 runs in the Indian Premier League here yesterday.

Playing at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the right-handed Smith made a six-ball nought while Bravo managed just two as Chennai rallied to 148 for nine off their 20 overs, after opting to bat first.

Bravo then played a key role with the ball, snaring two for 17 from 3.4 overs to help limit RCB to 124 all out, with two balls remaining in the innings.

Chenna suffered the worst possible start when Smith was bowled by Australia left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc off the last ball of the game’s first over, without a run on the board.His partner, New Zealander Brendon McCullum fell for 20 in the sixth over, leaving Suresh Raina to rebuild the innings in a 64-run, third wicket stand with South Africa’s Faf du Plessis.

The left-handed Raina top scored with 52 off 46 balls with five fours and a six while du Plessis struck 24 from 20 deliveries.

Once du Plessis was bowled by Harshal Patel in the 15th over, wickets fell steadily, with Bravo among the collapse – falling with two balls left in the innings to a catch at cover off Starc.

Without Chris Gayle in the line up, RCB were powered by captain Virat Kohli who stroked 48 off 41 balls at the top of the order in a 63-run fourth wicket stand with Dinesh Karthik who got 23 off 20 balls.

Bravo got the breakthrough when he ran out Kohli in the 14th over, after the right-hander squeezed out a yorker back to the Trinidadian seamer who threw down the wicket with the batsman out of his crease.

Struggling on 97 for four, RCB then lost a slew of wickets with Bravo picking up two, to help the visitors’ demise.

At Eden Gardens in Kolkata, there was also little success for West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell even though his Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 35 runs.

Russell scored just one in his team’s total of 167 for seven and took one for ten from two overs, as Sunrisers stumbled to 132 all out.