Bengaluru, April 22 (IANS): Chennai Super Kings showcased the strength and depth in their batting by making 181 for eight against Royal Challengers Bangalore after a delayed start due to rain in an Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.

The game began behind schedule due to a brief spell of drizzle while lightning and thunder before the toss added to the anxiety.

Small wonder that Virat Kohli opted to bowl first on winning the toss, fearing rain interruption leading to Duckworth-Lewis coming into play.

It was a bit of a struggle at the start for the Super Kings before opener Dwayne Smith (39, 29b, 3x4, 4x6) and Suresh Raina (62, 32b, 4x4, 6x6) provided momentum to the innings before an 18-ball 33 not out by Faf du Plessis helped the visitors post a sizeable total.

For the hosts, leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, despite getting some stick, bowled well to claim 3 for 28 while left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla took two at the tail-end of the innings.

RCB decided to leave out Chris Gayle who has not been in best of form this season and can be a liability in fielding. Also, with Starc available, the change was quite logical and understandable.

The home team looked to be in better shape with Aussie paceman Mitchell Starc finally playing his first game of this IPL season, having recovered from a knee injury.

Starc, player of the tournament at the 2015 World Cup, weighed in with tight two overs at the start much to RCB's delight that increased manifold in the second over when leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal claimed first of his three victims in Brendon McCullum (4) who cut straight to Rilee Rossouw at point.

CSK got into their stride in the eighth over that fetched 17 runs as Smith carved into David Wiese with two sixes and a four to jettison the scoring rate, but the powerful Barbadian fell in the next, edging Harshal Patel to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps.

Raina then took over and waded into the RCB bowlers, especially Chahal whom he smashed for three consecutive sixes before holing out at long-off while attempting another big hit off the next ball.

Chahal went on to dismiss Dhoni (13) in his next over as the Super Kings skipper too was caught in the deep by de Villiers in his next over to keep RCB in the hunt.

The hosts struck again with left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla tempting Ravindra Jadeja (8) into a big hit to be caught by Kohli as the visitors lost three wickets for just 11 runs.

Thereafter, du Plessis guided the CSK innings with a cameo even as wickets tumbled at the other end.

Scoreboard:

Chennai Super Kings:

Dwayne Smith c Karthik b Patel 39
Brendon McCullum c Rossouw b Chahal 4
Suresh Raina c Rossouw b Chahal 62
Mahendra Singh Dhoni c de Villiers b Chahal 13
Ravindra Jadeja c Kohli b Abdulla 8
Faf du Plessis (not out) 33
Dwayne Bravo c de Villiers b Abdulla 5
Ravichandran Ashwin c Bisla b Wiese 5
Mohit Sharma b Starc 2
Ashish Nehra (not out) 0

Extras (b-1, lb-6, w-3): 10
Total (for 8 wkts, 20 overs): 181.

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (1.5, McCullum); 2-70 (8.5, Smith); 3-124 (12.5, Raina); 4-132 (14.1, Dhoni); 5-135 (15.2, Jadeja); 6-156 (17.3, Bravo); 7-168 (18.2, Ashwin); 8-177 (19.4, Sharma).

Bowling: Mitchell Starc 4-0-24-1; Yuzvendra Chahal 4-0-40-3; Harshal Patel 4-0-28-1; David Wiese 4-0-46-1 (1w); Iqbal Abdhulla 4-0-36-2 (2w).