With six runs needed to get to his maiden IPL century, Shivam Dube mistimed a low full toss by Josh Hazlewood only to see Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis drop him at long on. The batsman and non-striker MS Dhoni had taken a run as the former finished with 95 runs off 46 balls. Chennai Super Kings reached 216/4 after 20 overs. 

CSK were on a four-match losing streak when Robin Uthappa and Ruturaj Gaikwad took strike. The latter was dismissed for a slow 17 and Moeen Ali, at No 3, fell prey to a sensational piece of fielding by RCB’s debutant Suyash Prabhudessai. The yellow army were 36/2 after 6.4 overs. 

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However, the show was not over. Shivam Dube came on to bat at No 4. The 28-year-old took no time to settle on the DY Patil pitch and started counter-attacking RCB. Soon Robin Uthappa also joined the party. 

CSK were 60/2 after the first 10 overs. The two joined hands to score 13, 13, 19, 13, 15, 12, 18, 24, 14, 15 in the next 10. In total, the defending champions smashed 156 runs from 11 to 20 overs – third highest in IPL history. 

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Uthappa scored 88 runs off 50 balls with the help of four boundaries and nine maximums. This was the opener’s highest IPL score. In total he and Dube hit 17 sixes. 

Talking about the innings during the break, Shivam Dube said that he just ‘tried to keep it simple, nothing special’.

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“I am used to this ground, so I tried to be disciplined in my batting. He (MSD) said keep calm and keep watching the ball. It’s still dry, not much dew so far, so it’s good for us. We (Uthappa and himself) decided to target the smaller boundaries. We need to be disciplined with out bowling to win the match, because one boundary is small,” the CSK batsman said.