Pacer Mustafizur Rahman claimed the first four-fer of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as he helped Chennai Super Kings and their skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad make a winning start in the tournament, beating Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets with eight balls to spare at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur, in his debut match for CSK, was brilliant as he used the conditions well, varied the pace, mixed up slow balls well, and destroyed the RCB middle-order for a brilliant haul of 4-29 in four overs.

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After Mustafizur’s 4-29 helped them restrict RCB to 173/6 despite a superb rearguard partnership of 95 between Anuj Rawat (48) and Dinesh Karthik (38 not out), Chennai made a poor start and lost a couple of wickets in the middle before cameos by Ajinkya Rahane (27), Daryll Mitchell (22), Shivam Dube (34 not out) and Ravindra Jadeja (25 not out) as CSK reached 176/4 in 18.4 overs, winning the match with a bit of fuel in the tank.

This was CSK’s eighth successive win over RCB at the Chepauk Stadium with RCB’s last win over CSK at this venue coming over a decade back.

CSK’s new skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra could manage only 38 runs for the opening wicket on a pitch that became slow as the day progressed.

Gaikwad was out for a run-a-ball 15, caught on the second attempt by Cameron Green at first slip off Yash Dayal. Ravindra was in blazing form as he hammered 37 off 15 balls, hitting three boundaries and as many sixes. But he was out just when he was looking good for a big one, going for a shot too much and holing out to Rajat Patidar off Karn Sharma — CSK were 71/2 in the 7th over.

Ajinkya Rahane and Mitchell kept CSK in the hunt but once they were out, CSK were 110/4 but still on course for victory. Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja shared an unbeaten partnership of 66 runs that sealed victory for CSK.

Dube scored 34 off 28, hitting four boundaries and sealing victory with a six while Jadeja struck 1 17-ball 25 not out studded with just one six as Chennai gave skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad a winning start.

For RCB, Cameron Green claimed 2-27 in three overs but RCB bowling lacked the edge to slice through the CSK batting lineup.

Earlier, RCB made a brisk start, stumbled in the middle, and then finished off in a canter as they reached 173/6 in 20 overs thanks mainly to a superb rearguard innings by Aunj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik, who added 95 runs for the sixth wicket partnership.

The brisk start was provided by skipper Faf du Plessis and the stumble was courtesy of the early dismissal of Virat Kohli (21), Rajat Patidar (0), Glenn Maxwell (0) Cameroon Green (18) and RCB slumped to 78/5 in the 12th over as Mustafizur Rahman knocked off three of those wickets, and Anuj Rawat (48) and Dinesh Karthik (38 not out) provided the final flourish as RCB reached a decent total in their opening match.

Skipper Faf du Plessis hammered eight fours in scoring a 23-ball 35 and with Virat Kohli going slow, they reached 41 in the fifth over. Faf waded into Deepak Chahar in the third over, hitting him for 17 runs including three fours, two of them off successive balls. He fell in the fifth over, hitting uppishly to Rachin Ravindra off Mustafizur Rahman, who was making his CSK debut on Friday.

Mustafizur struck again two balls later when Rajat Patidar nicked on behind to M.S Dhoni, beaten for pace. Glenn Maxwell was out for a duck edging behind off Charar and when Virat Kohli and Cameron Green (18) fell off the third and sixth delivery of the 12th over bowled by Mustafizur, RCB were in trouble at 78/5 and looking like they may struggle to reach 120.

However, Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik had other ideas as they combined to blast 95 runs in the sixth wicket partnership as RCB hammered 84 runs off the last five over the match.

Rawat started slowly scoring mostly through singles but after he picked pace, blasted 25 runs off the 18th over bowled by Tushar Deshpande, hammering him for three sixes — first punched over the bowler’s head, slogged over midwicket and a flat six over long-on and a four off a slow bouncer. In the next over, he picked Mustafizur for a six and four. Deshpande had the last laugh as he bowled a fine final over to concede only nine runs before Rawat was run out by Dhoni off the final delivery of the match.

Karthik in the meanwhile three boundaries and two sixes as he remained not out on 38 off 25 balls, proving an able foil for his young batting partner. Though RCB reached a decent total, it will still be 20 runs short of troubling CSK in their den.

Brief scores:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 173/6 in 20 overs (Anuj Rawat 48, Dinesh Karthik 38 not out, Faf du Plessis 35; Mustafizur Rahman 4-29) lose to Chennai Super Kings 176/4 in 18.4 overs (Rachin Ravindra 37, Shivam Dube 34 not out, Ajinkya Rahane 27; Cameron Green 2-27) by six wickets.