The clinical Chennai Super Kings clinched their second Indian Premier League title in a row with a 58-run thrashing of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a lop-sided final on Saturday.
Opener Murali Vijay cracked 95 runs off just 52 balls to help the defending champions pile up 205-5, before Ravichandran Ashwin removed Bangalore’s openers early, ensuring a fine win for the hosts at a packed Chidambaram Stadium.
League-toppers Bangalore, who were seeking their maiden IPL title, folded to 147-8 off 20 overs.
Photo: AFP
It was Chennai’s eighth win on the trot at home this season, underlining their dominance at home.
The home team owed their win to Vijay, whose record 159-run stand for the first wicket with Australia’s Michael Hussey (63) set the platform for a winning total after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni elected to bat first.
Their stand surpassed the 155-run partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Venkatsai Laxman against Mumbai in the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008.
“I was concentrating on just converting my start today, as it hasn’t always happened this season,” said Vijay, named man of the match. “This [Chennai] is a special unit to be part of and to retain the title feels really great.”
Bangalore’s chase was derailed early with off-spinner Ashwin (3-16) getting rid of the dangerous Chris Gayle for a duck in the first over.
Gayle, who still finished as the highest run-getter with 608 runs from 12 innings, offered an outside edge which was snapped up by Dhoni.
Gayle’s dismissal triggered a collapse, with Bangalore losing their next six wickets inside 11 overs to be reduced to 70-6, a situation from which they could never really recover.
Saurabh Tiwary offered some resistance with an unbeaten 42, but the other Bangalore batsmen simply caved in under pressure.
“It would have been a much better game if we could have put up a bowling performance like on Friday [against Mumbai], but it was not to be,” Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori said. “I think 160, 170 would have been chaseable, but their openers took the game away from us.”
Vijay, pointed out as the weak link in the Chennai line-up after an indifferent run with the bat in the tournament, decided to make amends at the big stage, unleashing six sixes and four fours in his blazing knock.
Hussey also impressed, hitting three sixes and as many boundaries in his 45-ball innings, before holing out to Abhimanyu Mithun near the boundary ropes off left-arm spinner Syed Mohammad.
Vijay, who seemed to struggle in hot and humid conditions during the later part of his innings, missed out on a well-deserved century when he offered a simple catch to Vettori off paceman Sreenath Aravind.
Aravind struck again off the very next ball to remove Dhoni, caught off a full toss by Virat Kohli after making 22, which included two sixes in one over from Gayle.
Gayle also picked up two wickets in two balls, sending back Albie Morkel and Suresh Raina in the 20th over with his wily off-breaks.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite