Royal Challengers Bengaluru registered an emphatic 43-run win over Southern rivals Chennai Super Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday in their IPL 2026 clash.
RCB began their defence in spectacular fashion as Jacob Duffy removed Chennai Super Kings openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson early, while Ayush Mhatre fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
CSK slumped to their third straight defeat of the season and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad put his hand up and accounted for the top-order failure.
“Great fight by Sarfaraz, Overton, Veer and to some extent, Dube too for that matter. If I would have contributed more, maybe it could have been different. The loss was definitely on me today,” he said.
RCB posted a total of 250, thanks to Tim David’s whirlwind
70 off just 26 balls and a half-century from Devdutt Padikkal. They then bowled out CSK for 207, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar claiming three wickets, while Jacob Duffy, Abhinandan Singh and Krunal Pandya picked up two wickets each.
David had a charm work in his favour as his dismissal by Anshul Kamboj was chalked off for an overstepping no-ball delivery.
“Almost got a wicket of him but it was an illegal delivery. After that, he smacked it all around the park. Hats off to him.”
CSK were also sub-par on the field as they dropped an early catch offered up by Kohli as Dube let the icon’s wicket slip.
Virat Kohli scored 28, while Phil Salt added 46 at the top of the order before Padikkal notched up his second consecutive fifty. Skipper Rajat Patidar remained unbeaten on 48 to guide his side to the mammoth total.
“We would have had, if we would have taken an early chance of Kohli. We would have had momentum. We still had the game in our hands till the 13-14th over but let momentum slip after it,” he said.
Sarfaraz Khan and Karthik Sharma then looked to stem the fall of wickets and steady the innings as CSK faced a daunting target of 251.
Sarfaraz raced to his half-century in just 24 deliveries before being dismissed by Krunal Pandya. The left-arm spinner struck again in the same over with the wicket of Karthik Sharma. Abhinandan Singh joined the act as Shivam Dube was caught behind following a brilliant piece of glove work by Jitesh Sharma.
Jamier Overton and Prashant Veer halted the slide with a solid partnership that took Chennai past the 150-run mark in the 14th over of the chase.
Veer added 43 before falling to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, while Overton was dismissed by Suyash Sharma for 37. Bhuvneshwar completed his three-for with the wicket of Noor Ahmed for a run-a-ball 8, before Abhinandan closed out the game with the dismissal of Matt Henry, as Kamboj remained unbeaten on 12.
