IPL 2019: Match 1, CSK vs RCB – Lesser Known Stats

The much-awaited clash between CSK and RCB in the 2019 IPL opener turned out to be a pale one due to a low-scoring track in Chepauk. The Super Kings spinners didn’t give away any scoring opportunities to the Bangalore team. The veteran spinners Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir did the most of the damage with three wickets apiece. The track didn’t get any better for batting despite the dew came on as CSK crawled to the target of 71 from 17.4 overs.

Here are the lesser known stats from the opening game of the 12th edition of the IPL:

A 5000 of Raina that many didn’t know:

After Virat Kohli got out for just six runs, everyone was waiting for the 15th run to be scored by Suresh Raina in the game as he could be completing 5000 runs in IPL with it. However, Raina, when on 14 only, reached 5000 runs in the Twenty20 format for Chennai Super Kings. Thus, he became only the 2nd player after Virat Kohli to score 5000 T20 runs for a single team.

Kohli aggregated 5378 runs for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Twenty20 format thus far. Suresh Raina now has 5005 runs for the Super Kings with 4163 runs being scored in the IPL and 842 runs in the Champions League T20. 842 runs out of the 5004 he scored in the IPL have been for the Gujarat Lions during the 2016 and 2017 editions.

Three overseas players are enough for CSK:

Chennai Super Kings took the field with a playing XI containing only three foreigners – Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo and Imran Tahir. This was the first ever instance for the CSK team where they didn’t utilize the maximum limit of four overseas spots in the IPL. Overall, this is the 16th instance in the league where a team took the field with less than four overseas players in their XI.

IPL 2019: Chennai Super Kings play with just three overseas players against RCB

Single digits galore:

Parthiv Patel was the last batsman to be dismissed in the RCB innings after scoring 29 from 35 deliveries. Remaining ten batsmen in their innings had single-digit scores. Thus, they recorded the 4th instance of as many as ten batsmen failing to get into double digits in the IPL. Interestingly, all those four instances were recorded by the Royal Challengers only.

As many as ten of their batsmen failed to score ten or more in an innings during the first ever IPL match against KKR in 2008 and also against RPS during the 2017 edition in Pune. No batsman from RCB got to double digits when they registered the lowest IPL total of 49/10 during the 2017 season against KKR.

Harbhajan gets the first three:

The off-spinner Harbhajan Singh picked up the first three wickets of the RCB innings to fall. He dismissed the big names Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers in his 2nd, 3rd and 4th overs respectively. Thus, Harbhajan became the first player to claim the first three wickets of an IPL season.

There have been three instances of a bowler claiming the first two wickets of an IPL season. Chaminda Vaas picked up two wickets in the first over of 2010 edition while playing for the Deccan Chargers against KKR. Lasith Malinga in the 2014 edition and Ishant Sharma during the 2016 season bagged the first to fall in the tournament.

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