Kohli decided to step up. He, first went hard against Ravindra Jadeja and then against Santner to keep the boundaries coming. It is a facet of Kohli we are seeing this season, attempting to take on the spinners at will. Much to the delight of the crowd, he even employed his newfound slog sweep to smash Jadeja into the stands. And once he fell to Santner, Du Plessis did his part by smashing Jadeja for 20 runs. It was almost as if they were applying the mathematics rule of two negatives (match-ups) making a positive. Santner, once again, came to the rescue, getting rid of Du Plessis but it only brought a better hitter of spin to the crease — Rajat Patidar.

Now until a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like the black magic spell that was cast on Patidar had followed him into the RCB dressing room. But it all wore off in Hyderabad. It is no coincidence that RCB started winning once he started taking apart spinners for fun in the middle-overs. Such was his spin-hitting that Gaikwad turned to pacers once he came in — a move that provided to be anticlimactic this time. Patidar hit Simarjeet Singh and then Theekshana came, followed by Thakur, who too was taken for 17 runs.

With Cameron Green for support, Patidar became the hero RCB needed. They added 71 runs from 28 balls as RCB looked well set for score closer to 220. That is when Patidar fell, trying to hit Thakur into the stands.

When things are going your way, you seldom put your foot wrong. RCB were in one such zone as they promoted Dinesh Karthik ahead of Glenn Maxwell, ensuring Gaikwad did not finish Jadeja’s quota of overs. Karthik hit a six and a four before passing the baton to Maxwell. The Australian started with a top edge for four and followed it with two more boundaries as RCB posted 218/5 in 20 overs. In the end, it proved to be good enough for the hosts.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 218/5 in 20 ovs (Du Plessis 54, Kohli 47, Patidar 41) bt Chennai Super Kings 191/7 in 20 ovs (Rachin 61, Jadeja 42 n.o; Dayal 2/42).