The opening match of IPL 2019 that pitted Royal Challengers Bangalore against the home team Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai was a happy one for the home crowd as the opposition was blown away by their spinners.

RCB could only manage 70 runs the sixth lowest total in IPL history with only Parthiv Patel an ex-CSKian top scoring with 29. It was veteran offspinner Harbhajan Singh who came to the party first removing Virat Kohli for 6 and returning match figures of 3 for 20 in his four overs. Leg spinner Imran Tahir and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja did the rest. CSK overhauled the score in 17.4 overs losing three wickets.

Suresh Raina became the first player in the IPL to cross the 5000 runs mark and he did it in 177 matches at a strike-rate of 138.15 including 35 fifties and one hundred. However his record is not safe as Virat Kohli needs only 46 runs to catch up.