Bangalore, April 28:: MS Dhoni led from the front with an explosive innings and his bowlers later exploited an inept batting by their opponents to script a narrow 13-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers and maintain their clean slate in the IPL match here tonight. Electing to bat on a Chinnaswamy Stadium, Dhoni with some lusty hitting along with Michael Hussey posted a competitive 178 for 5 in 20 overs.
In reply, the Royal Challengers were cruising to 102 for 2 in the 11th over only to make a mess of what appeared like a gettable target and were all out for 165 with two balls to spare.
The home team did not have the best of a start with opener B Chipli getting out cheaply for eight. But Wasim Jaffer and Ross Taylor took the team past 100 in the 11th over and they were cruising along.
The duo stitched a superb 89-run second wicket stand before Jaffer returned to the hut after making a breezy 50 off 33 balls, though he was dropped twice.
South African Jacques Kallis continued his poor form and was out cheaply for 14 but big hitting Kiwi Ross Taylor kept the run ticking at a reasonable pace.
But, once Taylor was out for 53 which he made from 34 balls with the help of three fours and as many sixes, the procession of Royal Challengers' batsmen started.
Mark Boucher (4), Virat Kohli (12) and captain Rahul Dravid (0) departed in quick succession though the former India captain was a bit unlucky to get the LBW decision off Manpreet Gony.
Even as cool-headed Dhoni kept on shuffling his bowlers to induce errors to their opposition batsmen, the last seven Bangalore Royal Challengers' wickets fell for just 38 runs and that put paid the home team's hopes of second win from four outings.
Punjab medium pacer Manpreet Gony, who picked up three wickets including two in one over of Boucher and Dravid, was the most successful of Chennai Super Kings bowlers while Palani Amarnath took two wickets.
Earlier, Dhoni and Michael Hussey shared a 95-run fourth wicket stand to take Chennai Super Kings to a competitive score of 178 for five in 20 overs.
Dhoni (65) gave ample demonstration of his class outscoring his Aussie partner as the two consolidated the position after the Super Kings were 83 for three at one stage.
Dhoni got his eye in before unleashing a fierce assault on the Royal Challengers in the later overs.
He plundered 45 runs off 16 deliveries at one stage disfiguring the bowlers' analysis to a great extent before trying for another big hit only to be caught in the last over.
Dhoni's contribution in the last 45 runs he added with Hussey (47) was an amazing 43 and his 65 came off 30 balls with 9 fours and three sixes. He had reached 50 in 24 balls earlier.
Matthew Hayden, Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina fell after a slow start with only 83 runs coming off 12 overs.
But the Royal Challengers lost the ascendancy once Dhoni came to the crease.
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