For the locals at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Tuesday night had everything -- crowd-favourite MS Dhoni diving to take a catch, Shivam Dube and Rachin Ravindra’s entertaining hitting, and a comfortable Chennai Super Kings (CSK) win.
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s Super Kings were all over Shubman Gill’s Gujarat Titans (GT) right from the beginning - the only thing that didn’t go their way was the coin toss. The decision of being put into bat too eventually went in favour of the home team which ended up scoring 206/6 on a Chepauk wicket which had a tinge of green.
Despite a few of them getting starts and the lone fight by the local boy Sai Sudharsan (37 off 31), GT couldn’t threaten the CSK bowlers much and lost the battle, falling short by 63 runs.
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Deepak Chahar drew first blood when he got Shubman Gill struck in front in the third over and then got the other opener Wriddhiman Saha caught in the next over.
But the loudest cheer that echoed across the ‘Anbuden’ was when Vijay Shankar was caught by a flying 42-year-old wearing the number seven jersey who goes by the name Dhoni.
Nothing worked right for the visiting team as the batters kept losing wickets regularly and the yellow brigade kept erupting in joy as the night descended with CSK’s second win in a row to start the IPL 2024 season.
It all began when Ravindra picked Umesh Yadav’s length ball towards square leg for a six before slashing him towards cover for a four in the second over. The 24-year-old Kiwi exhibited a wide range of shots during his 20-ball knock that included three sixes and six fours. It was Rashid Khan who eventually beat him in the air and got him stumped in the last over of the PowerPlay.
The next entertainment show began in the 11th over when Dube walked in at number four and tonked R Sai Kishore for two sixes off his first two balls. In a bid to keep Dube away from spinners, Gill introduced Mohit Sharma into the attack and kept Spencer Johnson from the other end.
Shivam Dube and Ruturaj Gaikwad of CSK in action during the TATA IPL 2024 match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) at M.A.Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. | Photo Credit: RAGHUNATHAN SR/ The Hindu
However, it didn’t matter for the southpaw who nailed his pulls and hooks against the two seamers to continue the attack in the middle overs. No boundary line insights from head coach Ashish Nehra worked for the GT bowlers as Dube reached his fifty in 22 balls, hitting five sixes and two fours before Rashid Khan got him out in the penultimate over.
Sandwiched between two hasty knocks was a calm 46 off 36 balls by captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was dropped by Sai Kishore at slip in first over -- he was eventually caught behind when he attempted to pull one off Johnson.
The final push to CSK’s innings was given by Sameer Rizvi, who, off his first ball of IPL, slog swept Rashid for a six and then charged down the track to hit another.
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