XtraTime Web Desk: Chennai Super Kings is currently in their worst run of form. Winning just 1 out of their 4 matches, Chennai is currently at the 8th spot in the IPL league table.
On Friday, Chennai Super Kings faced Sunrisers Hyderabad at Dubai. Batting first, Sunrisers put up a total of 164 runs. Young Priyam Garg got his maiden IPL half century as he scored 51 of 26 balls while Abhishek Sharma scored 31 of 24 balls. Deepak Chahar took 2 wickets for Chennai giving away 31 runs in his 4 overs.
Chennai’s batting is just not clicking. They lost 4 wickets in just 42 runs. Dhoni and Jadeja was the only hope for Chennai and they tried their best. Hyderabad’s bowlers bowled brilliantly and didn’t give any space to them. Yet, Jadeja scored an important half century. Scored 50 of 35 balls, Jadeja was out in a very crucial situation. Even then, Dhoni was at the crease. His efforts however went in vain. His 47 of 36 balls didn’t help as Chennai lost the match by 7 runs. Natarajan took 2 important wickets of Jadeja and Rayudu but gave away 43 odd runs. On the other hand, Rashid Khan gave away just 12 runs in his 4 but couldn’t take a wicket.
Priyam Garg was chosen the as the Man of the Match because of his matured innings in the middle. He was delighted and said, “I felt very good in there, because it’s a big stage with senior players. I wasn’t thinking too much, just playing my natural game. I think the best thing is the team management backed me after I failed in the first game.”
Speaking about his plans and batting with Abhishek Sharma, Garg said, “The plan was to play my shots and their bowling helped. I’ve batted with Abhishek throughout my childhood so it was easy. There’s a positive energy in the field too after such an innings. My self-belief has grown too after such an innings.”
David Warner, the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad gave the bowl to Abdul Samad in the 20th over. If went wrong, the youngster could’ve lost the match for his team. Warner justified why he took such a decision. “I backed him. I had no option. With Khaleel there, with five balls to bowl, we tried to kill the game there. Could have given it to Abhishek, but I felt with his height and how he bowled, I’d go with him.”
Speaking about the wicket Warner said, “This wicket was a little bit bad as compared to the last one we played here. You don’t really get that length to pull. It was good to see a bit of swing early on. It was nice to see our guys back themselves”
The captain also talked about his bowling unit at the death over. He said, “These guys work really hard, 20 minutes at the start is these guys executing yorkers, length and slower balls. We work on that, executing those skills when we need to.”
The losing captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the post match conference said, “I was not able to middle a lot of deliveries, maybe trying to hit the ball too hard. Looking at the outfield, it was subconscious.”
At one point of the match, MS was not feeling good. The physio had to come and check on him. To which Dhoni said, “I’m alright, the throat starts to get dry in these sort of conditions.”
Dhoni once again was very bold in the post match conference. Whatever he feels, he says it without holding back. Today, Dhoni again did something like that. In the post match conference, Dhoni pointed out exactly where he’s team is lagging. “Long time back, we may or may not have lost three in a row. We have to get a lot of things right. It’s the professionalism – dropping catches, bowling no-balls. We’re making the same mistakes again. After the 16th over, we had two bad overs. Overall we could have been slightly better. Nobody wants to drop catches, but at this level you have to draw a line that these catches have to be taken. Catches like these can really hamper your knockout stage games. What if this was a knockout game? There are plenty of positives in this game. A few areas to improve and we’ll come back stronger.”