Dhoni sounds a warning to CSK fast bowlers after win over LSG in IPL 2023

After posting 217 runs on the board for the loss of seven wickets, CSK fast bowlers came a cropper as they leaked runs in the PowerPlay but their spinners rescued to help their side beat LSG by 12 runs.

Published : Apr 04, 2023 06:31 IST - 3 MINS READ

MS Dhoni chats with Tushar Deshpande after the CSK bowler struggled with his line and length against LSG in Chennai.
MS Dhoni chats with Tushar Deshpande after the CSK bowler struggled with his line and length against LSG in Chennai. | Photo Credit: SPORTZPICS
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MS Dhoni chats with Tushar Deshpande after the CSK bowler struggled with his line and length against LSG in Chennai. | Photo Credit: SPORTZPICS

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni sounded a warning to his fast bowlers and asked them to pull up their socks after his side held its nerve to win a thriller against Lucknow Super Giants in Match 6 of the IPL 2023 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

After posting 217 runs on the board for the loss of seven wickets, CSK fast bowlers came a cropper as they leaked runs in the PowerPlay but their spinner came up with a rescue act to help their side beat LSG by 12 runs.

Deepak Chahar turned out to be the most expensive skipper after giving away 55 runs in his four overs. Tushar Deshpande was another bowler who sprayed in line and length early in the innings but returned to pick two wickets giving 45 runs.

Dhoni minced no words when asked about the performance of his fast bowlers in the post-match presentation.

“Fast bowling we need to slightly improve. Need to bowl according to the conditions. What is important is to keep an eye on what the opposition bowlers are doing. One more thing is they’ll have to bowl no no-balls or extra wides. Or they’ll have to play under a new captain. It will be my second warning and then I’ll be off. The only reason we’ve scored those runs is if the surface is nice,” Dhoni said.

Speaking overall about his side’s performance, the captain said, “Terrific high-scoring game. All of us were thinking how the wicket would be. It was the perfect first game that could happen. I thought it would be much slower. But it was a wicket where you could score runs. I was quite surprised with the wicket. But we’ll have to see if we can produce a wicket like this game after game.”

Losing skipper KL Rahul didn’t regret his decision of bowling first after winning the start and heaped praise on Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway for giving Chennai an explosive start.

“Not the ideal start after winning the toss. The first couple of overs it was a bit sticky and there was a bit of movement, but we did not bowl in the right areas and they got that flier. When you have quality batters in the opposition, they make you pay. Something for us to learn but the way Rutu and Conway played was brilliant. It does take time to learn what lengths to bowl on a surface, but to go for 70 odd in six overs isn’t ideal,” Rahul said.

Lucknow was off to a terrific start in the chase as Kyle Mayers blazed off to a brilliant half-century. But the introduction of spin saw the opposition lose wickets at regular intervals.

“We batted well but we didn’t capitalize the small momentum. Kyle Mayers is coming off good form, he was smoking them for West Indies and comes here with the same form and intent. Great to see what he’s done with the opportunity,” he said.

The LSG skipper did have a special word of mention for leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi who impressed with a three-wicket haul.

“Bishnoi is someone I’ve played with for a while, he gets wickets when things aren’t going well, puts his hand up and contains runs. Good to see different guys putting their hands up,” the skipper said.

When asked if he would have changed his decision after winning the toss, Rahul said, “Wouldn’t change the toss decision, we didn’t win because we didn’t capitalize the small moments. We had a good start but couldn’t press on. Not often we’ll find 4-5 guys caught on the boundary ropes, they needed to go over and will go over the next time. We’ll take that in T20 cricket, today the game didn’t go our way but this is the way we want to keep playing.”

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