Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni has said that his team’s bowling wasn’t up to the mark in their IPL 2021 opener against the Delhi Capitals.
CSK went down to DC by seven wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. Set to chase 188, the Delhi Capitals got home with eight balls to spare.
Speaking at the post-match conference, MS Dhoni blamed his bowlers for not getting their act right. He said in this regard:
“We could have done better (with our bowling). The batters were hitting over the top; there were some boundary deliveries, where the execution wasn’t nice. The bowlers will learn in the coming days.”
Delhi openers Shikhar Dhawan (85 off 54 balls) and Prithvi Shaw (72 off 38 balls) mauled the CSK bowlers in an opening stand of 138 in 13.3 overs.
Although both batsmen were dismissed before the target was achieved, DC eased across the finish line without too many hiccups.
Dew played an important factor: MS Dhoni
The CSK captain, who was dismissed for a second ball-duck by Avesh Khan, said that dew had a key role to play in the match.
According to MS Dhoni, CSK wanted to get as many extra runs as possible keeping the dew factor in mind. Elaborating further, MS Dhoni said:
“A lot depended on how much dew you would get. That’s the reason we wanted to get as much runs as possible. The first few overs, it was a bit tacky, and the batters did well to get to 188. You have to look ahead, especially when you have dew, you have to get extra runs. 7.30 start means opposition will have less amount of dew, and we have to score those 15-20 runs extra. After that, you need to get early wickets also. Well, if we keep consistently getting dew, 200 is something all teams have in mind. I felt both our openers got very good deliveries, and that can happen in a game like this.”
CSK lost both their openers early and were struggling at 7 for 2. Suresh Raina (54 off 36), Moeen Ali (36 off 24), Sam Curran (34 off 15) and Ravindra Jadeja (26 not out off17), though, lifted the Super Kings to what looked like a competitive total.
Once Shaw and Dhawan tore into the CSK attack, though, it was all one-way traffic for the Delhi Capitals.
