Harbhajan Singh helped Chennai Super Kings to a comfortable victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening match of the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday.

The former India spinner picked up early wickets and finished with figures of 3-20 in his four overs as RCB were bowled out for 70 in Chennai with Imran Tahir sweeping the lower order with 3-9.

Despite Shane Watson’s duck, the hosts kept their wits about them and crawled their way to a seven-wicket win with two overs to spare.

Here, we take a closer look at Harbhajan’s display.

STATISTICS

Overs: 4

Wickets: 3

Runs: 20

Economy: 5.00

Dot balls: 13

30-SECOND REPORT

In the right conditions, Harbhajan has often been a dangerous weapon in the powerplay overs. Fortunately for CSK, there are few skippers better than MS Dhoni at reading a wicket and perhaps none more capable of getting the best out of the off-spinner.

He tossed Harbhajan the new ball in the second over and it paid off handsomely. The ball wasn’t coming onto the bat and RCB struggled against the turn the 38-year-old was generating.

Not only did he hand Chennai a massive breakthrough with the wicket of Virat Kohli, but he also removed RCB’s remaining main threats in Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers. Tahir also impressed with the ball but it was Harbhajan who set up CSK for the win by tearing through the top order.

GOT RIGHT

Consistency was key in this spell. Granted, he got plenty of help from a turning wicket but he found the right length and hit it perfectly on a regular basis. It was the kind of length that invited a big shot but owing to the turn he generated off the turf, the ball slowed down before reaching the batsman.

Not one, not two but three top batsmen fell victim to the same ploy. Kohli was first to go, mistiming his pull-shot and picking out Ravindra Jadeja at deep midwicket. Then Ali was deceived and ended up awkwardly spooning the delivery straight back to Harbhajan. Pitching on off stump and spinning away, the ball was far behind the left-hander’s shot.

De Villiers was afforded a warning he failed to heed. Having top-edged a sweep shot only for Tahir to drop him at deep square leg, the South African then tried to heave a pull shot over the ropes the very next ball. He was left reaching for the ball though and didn’t get enough purchase on his effort as Jadeja was the man to gobble up the catch in the deep again.

GOT WRONG

There’s precious little to fault him for but you could argue that there wasn’t much variation to his bowling. In fairness, the wicket didn’t require him to try to be too clever but on the rare occasion that he over-pitch a delivery, Ali swept him for an emphatic six.

VERDICT – 9/10

The 38-year-old’s inclusion in a side packed with veterans was always going to invite criticism but Harbhajan proved his worth against a fine batting order.