A fourth consecutive victory for the Super Kings

A brilliant knock by Dhoni leads the Super Kings to maintain their winning run!

The Chennai Super Kings kept their unbeaten record intact by beating home team the Bangalore Royal Challengers, who suffered a dramatic batting collapse to go down by 13 runs in a pulsating Indian Premier League match.

Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit a blistering 65 of 30 balls to help his team to a challenging score and then put his thinking cap on, rotating his bowlers cleverly to script their fourth win in a row.

Chasing Chennai Super Kings’ 178, on a day when the rain stayed away, Royal Challengers struck an early vein of aggression through Wasim Jaffer (50, 33b, 5x4, 2x6).

Jaffer along with Ross Taylor (53, 34b, 3x4, 3x6) crafted an 89-run second-wicket partnership. However the chase unhinged in despair, after Jaffer holed out in the deep, though Taylor continued to bludgeon, swiping Morkel into the stands past long-on and then scampering for a single that ushered in his fifty.

Earlier, Chennai Super Kings struggled to fire upfront as openers Mathew Hayden and Parthiv Patel had to contend with the zest and pace of South African speedster Steyn.

Hayden tried to break free against Zaheer and inner-edged to his stumps. Parthiv perished to Praveen and the innings gained some breath through a 41-run third wicket partnership between Hussey and Suresh Raina before Dhoni stepped in and plonked his foot on the accelerator.

Chennai Super Kings now has an all-win record in its four matches and has eight points, while Royal Challengers stays at two from four.

The scores:

Chennai Super Kings: Parthiv c J. Kallis b Praveen Kumar 21, M. Hayden b Zaheer Khan 13, M. Hussey c R. Dravid b Zaheer 47, S. Raina (run out) 28, M.S. Dhoni c (sub) R. Vinay Kumar b Zaheer 65, J. Oram (not out) 0. Extras: (lb-1, w-3) 4. Total: (for five wkts. in 20 overs) 178.
Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-42, 3-83, 4-178, 5-178.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Steyn 4-0-40-0, Zaheer 4-0-38-3, Praveen 4-0-29-1, Kallis 4-0-36-0, Akhil 4-0-34-0.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: B. Chipli b Gony 8, W. Jaffer c Oram b Amarnath 50, R. Taylor c Raina b Amarnath 53, J. Kallis c Dhoni b Joginder 14, M. Boucher c Hussey b Gony 4, V. Kohli b Morkel 12, R. Dravid lbw b Gony 0, Praveen (run out) 6, Zaheer (run out) 8, B. Akhil (not out) 2, D. Steyn c Hussey b Joginder 1. Extras: (lb-1, w-6) 7. Total: (in 19.4 overs) 165.

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-102, 3-127, 4-132, 5-142, 6-143, 7-149, 8-161, 9-162.

Chennai Super Kings bowling: Oram 4-0-27-0, Gony 4-0-34-3, Morkel 4-0-38-1, Amarnath 4-0-38-2, Joginder 3.4-0-27-1.