The sluggish Chepauk track again took the spotlight after the Chennai Super Kings-Kolkata Knight Riders game turned out to be a low-scoring one on Tuesday.
The host aced the chase of 109 with precision, winning by seven wickets and with 16 balls to spare, but the fans didn't get to see many fours and sixes with the pitch not quite conducive for strokeplay.
Deepak Chahar, who was the man of the match for his three-wicket haul (three for 20), expects better pitches for the upcoming matches.
"I can't complain about the pitch because I performed (laughs) but we are looking for a better wicket. No one wants such kind of wickets. You also can't help much with the heat and the soil but the pitch curators are doing their best to give us a good wicket," Chahar said.
In reference to the reprimand he got from his captain M. S. Dhoni after bowling two above-waist-high no-balls in the penultimate over of CSK's previous match against Kings XI Punjab, Chahar said: "I have got thousand of messages asking me the same question. He (Dhoni) was angry and if I was the captain I also would have got angry. I bowled two beamers and he was angry and told me the selection of the ball was not good."
When asked about the team's expectations from him in Dwayne Bravo's absence, he said he is enjoying the role and responsibility being given to him.
"I am not under any pressure and I like being given responsibilities. I always wanted to bowl in the death and look it is always difficult to replace a player like Bravo. I have been waiting for the opportunity to bowl the end overs and proving to be good as a death bowler will help me in my career," he said.
Chahar has come a long way as a bowler since the last IPL and he points out that it needed lot of hard work and more importantly bowling according to the conditions.
"Last year we played lot of matches in Pune where the conditions are helpful for fast bowling and this year I knew most of the matches were in Chennai, so I practised that way. Line and length is important when the ball is not swinging and has to be accurate. I was prepared for it with the ball not swinging and I am a better bowler after last year and had lot of confidence in me and playing for India also helped."
'We didn't misread the wicket'
On the other hand, Piyush Chawla defended the KKR batsmen after the team was reduced to 29 for four in the powerplay.
"It is not like we misread the wicket, maybe we played too many shots at the start and lost three extra wickets in the powerplay. That's how it goes in the shorter formats and so you can't really say we misread the wicket. Some shots goes to the fielder and some in the gap but 135-140 would have been ideal on this wicket," Chawla said.
The leg-spinner also backed the bowling combination KKR is persisting with and said it suits their game.
"We have two wrist-spinners, Sunil is there and we should be ready to bowl on any kind of surface. We are happy with our combination of three fast bowlers and three spinners, it really suits our game."
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