But in the tenth over, du Plessis attempted a pre-meditated sweep against the leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, but didn’t make contact and lost his leg stump; he made 21 from 22 balls. Two balls later, Suresh Raina played an impetuous shot and holed out to long-off.

Those two wickets put the match in the balance yet again, and CSK needed one partnership to see them through. Skipper MS Dhoni, who batted at number five, and Hussey, added 47 runs in 6.5 overs to take the team closer. The left-handed Hussey, playing his third match of the season, was the pillar of the run-chase; the 39-year old made use of all his experience, conquered the conditions, and scored an important half-century. He made 56 from 46 balls and hit three boundaries and two sixes, before he miscued an attempted pull and holed out to short fine-leg in the seventeenth over.

A partnership of 27 runs between Dhoni and Pawan Negi took CSK closer. But RCB continued to fight; Sarfaraz Khan ran Negi out with five runs needed, and Mitchell Starc dismissed Dwayne Bravo for a first-ball duck. Dhoni too perished for 26 with his team needing to get one more run. R Ashwin worked Harshal Patel for a single through the leg-side to take his team home.

For RCB, there was not too much wrong with the bowling performance. All the bowlers were among the wickets and kept the pressure. Yuzvendra Chahal was the most successful bowler, returning figures of 2 for 28. RCB will rue the opportunities they didn’t grab on the field; du Plessis was dropped by Chris Gayle first ball and went on to make 21, while Dinesh Karthik grassed a chance from Hussey when the left-hander had 11 runs against his name.

Earlier in the evening, RCB opened their account when a miscued hit by Chris Gayle sailed over the cover boundary. Gayle swept R Ashwin for a boundary in the second over while Virat Kohli picked up a four and a six off consecutive deliveries of Ashish Nehra in the third over.

Nehra struck two blows in his following over - the fifth of the innings. He had Kohli caught at short fine-leg with his first delivery, and then rapped AB de Villiers on the pads with his last delivery. From 23 for no loss at the start of the over, RCB had slipped to 25 for two in the space of six deliveries, with the team’s top two run-getters in the season back in the hut.

CSK then tightened their grip on the match with some disciplined bowling. RCB crawled to 29 for two at the end of six overs, and to 46 for 3 at the half-way stage. Gayle struggled for timing, but put a price on his wicket and battled it out, while Dinesh Karthik, who walked in to bat in the eighth over, gave the innings some momentum by rotating the strike frequently and picking up the odd boundary. The fourth wicket pair added 44 runs and resurrected the innings.

Gayle cut loose when Suresh Raina was introduced into the attack; he hit the part-time off-spinner for consecutive sixes in the fourteenth over, before he miscued an attempted heave. Raina settled neatly under the ball and completed the catch to draw the curtains on an innings that was just about beginning to flourish. Gayle made 41 from 43 balls and hit two fours and three sixes.

Karthik perished in the seventeenth over when he hit a low full-toss from Nehra straight to Mohit Sharma at long-on; he made 28 – his highest score of the season - and hit four boundaries in his 26-ball stay at the crease. A cameo from the 17-year old Sarfaraz Khan – who hit four boundaries in his 21-ball 31 – was chiefly responsible in taking RCB to a respectable total; RCB finished their twenty overs at 139-8.

For CSK, R Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers. The off-spinner was given the ball in the second over and bowled his four overs unchanged; his figures at the end of the day read one for 13, and his spell had 16 dot deliveries. Ashish Nehra, whose twin strikes in the fifth over pushed RCB on the backfoot, was the most successful of the bowlers; he bowled 14 dot deliveries in his four-over spell, returning figures of three for 28. Mohit Sharma, Raina and Dwayne Bravo were the other wicket-takers.

Brief Scores

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Chris Gayle 41, Ashish Nehra 3-28) lost to Chennai Super Kings 140-7 in 19.5 Overs (Michael Hussey 56, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-28)

Man of the Match: Ashish Nehra, for his 3-28