Royal Challengers Bengaluru 250 for 3 (David 70*, Padikkal 50, Patidar 48*, Salt 46, Dube 1-30) beat Chennai Super Kings 207 (Sarfaraz 50, Veer 43, Overton 37, Bhuvneshwar 3-41, Abhinandan 2-30, Krunal 2-36, Duffy 2-58) by 43 runs

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) razed Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) attack and the record books in front of their beloved fans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday night.

After being on 91 for 1 in ten overs, RCB nearly tripled that in the last ten, pushing the limits of T20 power-hitting. RCB's 250 for 3 was their third-highest total in the IPL and the highest by any team against CSK in the league. In response, CSK lost their top three inside three overs and eventually slid to their third successive defeat in IPL 2026.

The Chinnaswamy surface was tacky in the early exchanges, according to Devdutt Padikkal, who scored 50 off 29 balls, and the outfield was unusually slow, with quite a few strong hits plugging in the outfield. While the surface settled later in the innings, the outfield remained slow. Tim David and Rajat Patidar didn't feel the need to hit the ball into the outfield, especially when they had the power to keep launching the ball into the night sky.

David and Patidar faced 44 balls between them and sent 14 of those disappearing over the boundary. The entire CSK batting line-up managed only 11 sixes.

The calm

After being asked to bat, RCB needed 20 balls for the first boundary of the day. Both Matt Henry and Khaleel Ahmed hit hard lengths and made scoring hard for Phil Salt and Virat Kohli. It was Anshul Kamboj who provided CSK with the opening breakthrough when he had Kohli caught by Shivam Dube at long-on for 28 off 18 balls, Dube redeeming himself after dropping Kohli on 7 at mid-on off Khaleel in the third over.

With the ball not coming onto the bat, Salt laboured to 15 off 16 balls. A brace of swatted fours off Kamboj then freed him up, but Dube, bowling for the first time this season, struck with his third ball to stop Salt on 46 off 30 balls with a cutter that was banged into the pitch.

Padikkal, who had dashed out of the blocks on the opening day of the season, wasn't allowed to do so on this track. He started slowly as well - he was on 17 off 16 balls at one point - but then put the pedal to the floor and converted it into a 28-ball half-century. It was his second successive fifty, but it certainly wasn't the story of the day.

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The storm

David and Patidar came together at 151 for 3 at the start of the 15th over after Jamie Overton had knocked Padikkal over by cranking it up to 148kph. The carnage that followed turned out to be the story of the day.

With only 35 balls left in the innings, David took strike for 25 and crashed an unbeaten 70. Only one other batter has scored as many or more without facing a ball in the first 14 overs of a T20 innings (where ball-by-ball data is available).

David was particularly brutal on Overton, taking him for a sequence 6, 4, 6, 6, 6 in the 19th over that yielded 30 runs. Each of those hits had the Chinnaswamy in a frenzy. One of those even had Kohli off his seat in the dressing room and applauding. The last of that sequence was a 106-metre monster that landed on the roof.

At the other end, Patidar had the best seat to this six-hitting show. He didn't face a single ball for almost three overs between 17 and 20. In all, he faced just five balls since the 16th over. Prior to that, he had played some special shots of his own. Like the pumped six off Noor Ahmad in the 12th over. Like the sliced six over the same region off a near yorker from Khaleel four overs later. Patidar finished with an unbeaten 48 off 19 balls.

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The aftermath

After seeing David thump one six after another, Bhuvneshwar Kumar "wasn't sure whether I should be happy or sad". He had 200 reasons to be happy when he had Ayush Mhatre flapping a catch to mid-off for 1 by hitting an awkward, in-between length. It was his 200th wicket in the IPL; only Yuzvendra Chahal has more wickets than him in the league.

Jacob Duffy ensured that RCB didn't feel Josh Hazlewood's absence once again, having both Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad caught in the slips. From 30 for 3, CSK went down swinging and were dismissed for 207 in 19.4 overs.

By the end of the powerplay, CSK were 77 for 3, with Sarfaraz Khan scoring 50 of those in 24 balls. Next ball, however, Krunal Pandya had Sarfaraz stumped.

Prashant Veer then showed some spark during his 43 off 29 balls after going two matches without bowling a single ball. His shovelled four between deep midwicket and wide long-on off a Krunal dart showed why franchises were locked in a bidding war for him at the auction.

Overton also made some quick runs, but his cameo could not offset the damage caused by the sixes he had conceded to David.