One of the serious IPL rivalries is between two teams at the extreme ends of spectrum: Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. This is also referred to as `Southern Derby` of Indian Premier League and fans have witnessed number of memorable encounters between both the sides.
Chennai Super Kings is one of the most successful sides in the league while Royal Challengers Bangalore have been the eternal `underachievers` of IPL. Experts also refer this rivalry as ‘Ice (MS Dhoni) against hot (Virat Kohli)’. This has always been the test of acumen for Virat Kohli against the most successful captain of India.
In RCB vs CSK encounters, the two teams have met a total of 22 times in IPL and Chennai Super Kings have come out victorious on 14 occasions. Royal Challengers Bangalore have been successful to edge out CSK in 8 games. CSK have been the superior side on the play-offs as well and most notably, CSK claimed its second title by beating RCB in 2011 at Chepauk.
| CSK vs RCB Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Played | CSK | RCB | No Result |
| 23 | 15 | 8 | 0 |
IPL 2019 kicked off with the match between RCB vs CSK at Chepauk in late March last year. MS Dhoni won the toss and asked RCB to have a go first. The pitch at Chepauk was a proper dustbowl and the ball was turning square. The same was sensed by MS Dhoni early and he started to bombard RCB with his spin trio. Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja spun the web around RCB batsmen and the writing was on the wall in the very first match of the season for Bangalore franchise. They bowled out for a mere 70 runs and CSK came sailing home with the loss of only 3 wickets. Harbhajan Singh was declared `Player of the match` for his 3 wickets in RCB vs CSK 2019.
IPL 2019 CSK vs RCB, the return game at M. Chinnaswamy stadium was an absolute cliffhanger. CSK again won the toss and decided to bowl first in batting friendly conditions this time. Virat Kohli was dismissed early by Deepak Chahar but Parthiv Patel and AB de Villiers kept the momentum going for the hosts. Parthiv scored a half-century while late cameo from Moeen Ali propelled RCB to a total of 161 runs. In reply, CSK had a terrible start as they lost 4 wickets for just 28 runs with South African international Dale Steyn and Navdeep Saini coming into the act together. MA Dhoni not only reconstructed the innings but also almost took CSK on the brink with the unbeaten knock of 84. But in the crucial moments, others were unable to put MS Dhoni back on to strike and RCB took the match by just solitary run.
| LAST 5 ENCOUNTERS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Played | CSK | RCB | No Result |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
As we go into the details of the individual records for the rivalry, starting with top performers with the bat for Chennai Super Kings. Popularly known as `Thala` in Chennai, MS Dhoni has enjoyed his time against RCB compared to any other teams. He has scored 654 runs from just 20 innings against RCB. He is followed by Suresh Raina with 552 runs from 22 innings. Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plesis complete the list with 171 and 137 runs respectively. MS Dhoni is having an average of 43.60 and strike-rate of 148.30, that’s one stellar record to boast.
Suresh Raina is at the top when it comes to performances at Chepauk, followed by Ravindra Jadeja. But MS Dhoni has played blistering knocks one after another at Chinnaswamy and as a result of that, he has the highest runs in away games for CSK. He has 375 runs from 7 innings at an incredible average of 125 and a strike-rate of 184.7.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have been more than just teammates when they play for Royal Challengers Bangalore, they have become friends for lifetime. When they are on the ground, they pile on the runs for their team. The story is not so different against Chennai Super Kings as well and both are leading the pack in terms of runs scored against CSK. Virat Kohli has slammed 690 runs from 22 innings while AB de Villiers has 340 runs from 15 innings. Parthiv Patel and Moeen Ali are other top performers from the current lot with 145 and 35 runs respectively. Virat Kohli is having an impressive average of 36.32 while AB de Villiers has done the scoring at a rapid clip of 158.88.
When it comes to matches at Chinnaswamy, AB de Villiers scores even more quickly with a strike-rate of 171.83. Other notable pattern is of their strike-rates at Chepauk, which declines at an alarming rate for almost all the batsmen. Historically, RCB have struggled in sluggish conditions of Chennai and their scoring rates only confirm the fact further.
| TOP 4 BATSMEN (among current players) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai Super Kings | |||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Not out | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |
| 1 | MS Dhoni | 21 | 5 | 695 | 43.44 | 149.46 | 0 | 4 | |
| 2 | M Vijay | 10 | 0 | 268 | 26.80 | 148.07 | 0 | 2 | |
| 3 | F du Plessis | 6 | 2 | 208 | 52.00 | 126.83 | 0 | 2 | |
| 4 | AT Rayudu | 4 | 0 | 171 | 42.75 | 114.77 | 0 | 1 | |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Not out | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |
| 1 | V Kohli | 23 | 3 | 747 | 37.35 | 124.09 | 0 | 6 | |
| 2 | AB de Villiers | 16 | 0 | 344 | 21.50 | 159.26 | 0 | 3 | |
| 3 | PA Patel | 4 | 0 | 145 | 36.25 | 114.17 | 0 | 2 | |
| 4 | MM Ali | 2 | 0 | 35 | 17.50 | 145.83 | 0 | 0 | |
The conditions at Chepauk have traditionally being spin-friendly with pitch offering a plenty of assistance to the slower bowlers. As a result of that, current spin trio of Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja have always played crucial roles for CSK against RCB. Another advantage for CSK is that out of these three, only Imran Tahir is the foreign import. So, they can afford to play all three in the most of the matches. Dwayne Bravo is leading the charge with his impressive death bowling skills, picking up 13 wickets against RCB in 12 innings. He is followed by Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir and Harbhajan Singh with 10, 6 and 5 wickets in that order.
These four bowlers have performed at almost all the venues for CSK with Dwayne Bravo topping all the charts. Apart from that, Mohit Sharma has a good record in away and neutral games for CSK against RCB.
IPL silverware has eluded Royal Challengers Bangalore over the years and as believed by many, the reason for that is their lackluster bowling. Team management of RCB has failed to gather an all-around attack for all the conditions. Having said that, they do have some individual superstars in the bowling lineup with the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Dale Steyn. The leg-spinner is at the top in terms of wickets taken against CSK with 10 scalps from 9 innings. Dale Steyn is at the second position with 6 wickets from the same number of innings. Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj follow him closely to complete the list of top wicket takers.
Yuzvendra Chahal has performed against CSK in almost all the conditions and tops the chart in home, away and neutral venues. Young Indian international Navdeep Saini has been good in the limited opportunities he got but RCB would be having high hopes on him in the upcoming years.
| TOP 4 BOWLERS (among current players) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai Super Kings | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Wickets | 5w | 4w | ||||||||||
| 1 | DJ Bravo | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 | RA Jadeja | 11 | 12 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Imran Tahir | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Harbhajan Singh | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Wickets | 5w | 4w | ||||||||||
| 1 | YS Chahal | 9 | 10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 | DW Steyn | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 | UT Yadav | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | P Negi | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||