Chennai Super Kings won the battle of pride and supremacy against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy on Monday.

RCB mounted a stupendous chase in pursuit of 227 but a flurry of wickets towards the close helped CSK to pull off an eight-run victory.

For most of the chase, RCB looked within sniffing distance of their target with Faf du Plessis (62 off 33) and Glenn Maxwell (76 off 36) stitching together a superb 126-run partnership for the third wicket. Maxwell was the more attacking of the two with his lofted hits and piercing drives through the infield.

An ecstatic Akash Singh of Chennai Super Kings after dismissing Virat Kohli on Monday. PTI picture

However, there was very little challenge from the rest of the batters once they left, except for Dinesh Karthik (28 off 14). RCB needed 19 off the final over from Matheesha Pathirana but managed only 10.

Earlier, put into bat, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men rode entertaining knocks from Devon Conway (83 off 45), Ajinkya Rahane (37 off 20) and Shivam Dube (52 off 27) to reach 226 for six.

Despite the early departure of Ruturaj Gaikwad, CSK continued with their big-hitting ways as none of the bowlers managed to stop the run flow. Vijaykumar Vyshak, who took three wickets on debut in their last match, was also at the receiving end, going for 62 in four overs.

Glenn Maxwell and (left) Faf du Plessis during their 126-run partnership in RCB’s losing cause on Monday. PTI picture

Only Mohammed Siraj survived the carnage. He bowled two Powerplay overs, the 14th and the 19th. The 19th over went for just 10 runs despite a six off the first ball. He followed it up with superb yorkers that made big hitting difficult.

Conway started off by whipping Wayne Parnell to the mid-wicket boundary in the second over and, three balls later, lifted the South African over the fine leg fence. He then scooped Vijaykumar over the wicketkeeper for a four.

Rahane began with a perfect hook for a six and then in the next over clobbered Parnell for two boundaries and another six to pick up 15 runs.

Introduced into the attack in the seventh over, Glenn Maxwell was hit out of the park by Conway. The duo looked in ominous form as they gathered a boundary or a six in all most every over of their partnership.

Conway was at his brutal best as he smoked Wanindu Hasaranga over mid-wicket for a huge six in the 10th over before the Lankan spinner broke the dangerous-looking partnership by cleaning up Rahane.

CSK reached 97 for two at the halfway stage. Dube marked his arrival at the crease with a huge six off Maxwell, while Conway continued his onslaught and smashed Vijaykumar for back-to-back fours.

Dube then slammed Harshal Patel for another six. Dube and Conway dealt in fours and sixes to take CSK to 165 for two after 15 overs.

No one like MS: Sunny

New Delhi: Sunil Gavaskar has doffed his hat to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings captain.

“CSK know how to get out of tough situations. This has been possible only under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. Captaining 200 matches is very difficult. Captaining so many matches is a burden and it could have affected his performance as well,” Gavaskar, himself a former India captain, said.

“But Mahi is different. He is a different captain. There hasn’t been a captain like him and there will never be one like him in the future."

Dhoni, 41, has been CSK's captain from 2008. In 200 matches that he has captained, CSK have won 120 and lost 79, with one 'no result'.

Written with inputs from PTI