RCB vs CSK, 35th Match at Sharjah, IPL, Sep 24 2021 - Match Result

That's all from us at ESPNcricinfo. Tomorrow is double-header Saturday. Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals in the afternoon. Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings in the evening. See you then for more IPL action. Till then on behalf of Shashank, Chandan and Thilak, this is Sreshth saying bye bye!

DJ Bravo, Player of the Match: "I just strive to be competitive. IPL is the toughest competition in the world. Some days it works for me, some days it doesnt. But the pride and love I have for this game keeps me going. RCB are a big side, and Virat is a very good player, so important wicket. Wanted to just keep it simple. Variations, yorkers, slower balls...just stuck to my basics. Today I bowled around the wicket and wide yorkers, leg stump yorkers. That gets the batters thinking which way the ball will go. Its all about keeping myself healthy."

Winning captain, MS Dhoni: "We were worried about the dew, so whenever there's chances of dew we want to bat second. They got off to a good start but after ninth over wicket slowed down. You still had to bowl tight, and Jadeja's spell was important with Padikkal batting from one end. After that Bravo, Josh, Shardul, Deepak were brilliant. Its always on the back of your mind on which bowler can be effective over here. I had told Moeen before drinks that he would be bowling soon, but then I decided Bravo should bowl. The more you delay Bravo, the more difficult it is since he will end up bowling four straight overs in these difficult conditions. Our players have worked hard, they have understood their roles and responsibilities. Over here, the three grounds are different. This is slowest (so far) of all. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are different. So the players have been adapting. Looking at the wicket, I felt left-right combo was important. We bat deep, we have a lot of left-handers, so in the back of the head its there. And I feel all of them are good enough to play in any position. That's why we went with the left-right combination, which may have pushed Raina and Rayudu down. Bravo has turned up fit - that's a very good thing. And he is executing well. I call him my brother. We always have fights over whether he should bowl the slower ball. But I told him that now everyone knows he bowls slower balls, so I told him to bowl six different balls in one over. Whenever he can, he takes up responsibilities."

Mukunth: "Kohli has the audacity to blame the bowling for not being good enough, when he made a tactical blunder by not introducing fast bowlers as soon as Raina came in. He really expects high standards from the team, but his tactical acumen is largely left wanting."

Stat alert: This is the 4th instance of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina finishing off an IPL chase. Only Dwayne Bravo-Ravindra Jadeja (6 times include twice for Gujarat Lions) have done it more often in IPL

Ganesh: "Who is MOM today? It is a collective victory. Probably Bravo today!!!!"

9.40pm A cruise-controlled victory for CSK, and they move to first on the IPL 2021 points table. RCB, who were playing so well in India, now suffer their seventh-straight defeat in the UAE. They added only 66 runs in the back 10, and that's made the difference today. Another 20 runs in the first innings and this game would've been played out very differently. Dhoni, Raina bump fists with the opponents.

The chase was set up by Gaikwad and du Plessis, who put on 71 in quick time at the top. Useful contributions from Rayudu, Moeen, Raina and Dhoni then saw them home. A clinical CSK performances without the last-over finish.

The Kohli-Padikkal partnership of 111 seems so long ago now. That's perhaps the only bright spot for RCB today. After that, the middle order just blew cold against Bravo, Shardul and Chahar.

Here's Virat Kohli, losing captain: "We could've got 175, that could've been a winning total. The pitch had a lot to offer but our bowlers could not make use. They got away with too many boundary opportunities. They bowled well in their back end and executed the yorkers when needed. It was difficult for us to get elevation, and only bad balls could be put away. We then gave too many boundary balls. We spoke of areas we didn't want them to hit, but we couldn't do that. The X-Factor was missing in the first five overs with the ball. But its very important to execute balls during the crunch moments. Those few moments... thats what we failed to capitalise on. We need to get on a winning run again. This game is more disappointing than the first one. We were on top and then gave it all away..."

Ruturaj Gaikwad (38): "Happy with the win, but not happy that I couldn't finish the game. Opening partnership is always important, chasing or setting the target. The new ball was coming onto the bat, so wanted to play good cricket shots. Faf and I compliment each other well. We talk about when to attack, when to rotate strike, which bowler to attack. He knows which bowler I'll go after and vice versa."

Dhoni wont be on strike for the last run then.

Two needed. Will Raina take one and give Dhoni strike for a six to end the game? Maybe that's a bit too much fantasy. But Raina's little cameo will give him immense confidence moving deeper into the competition.

Sankalp: "This is where Kohli tactically misses out on winning matches. TV commentary was showing Raina's contrasting stats pace vs spin which showed that Kohli just had to bring a fast bowler as soon as Raina came in but he didn't."

SUSHIL GHIMIRE: "feel of again we are at first IPL, these two are still on game pure nostalgia"

Siraj.

Hasaranga.

Aarush Luthra: "CSK won't do a Punjab right ? My adrenaline going places right now.."

Dhoni time. Roar from the crowd. 14 years to the day that he lifted the T20 World Cup trophy.

Interesting analysis from our in-house experts Sanjay Manjrekar and Carlos Brathwaite: did Virat Kohli slow down as he approached his fifty today? This is what they had to say about it.