IPL 2018: Spinners Had a Huge Role to Play, feels MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings registered a convincing six-wicket win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 35^th match of the tournament.

It was an all-round performance by the yellow brigade which helped them clinch a convincing victory in the end. A fantastic show from bowlers helped them restrict Bangalore to a below-par score of 127 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Chennai spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh, were all over Bangalore. Jaddu dismissed Virat Kohli on the very first delivery he faced. The ball went on with the arm and disturbed the timbers. He bagged a couple more wickets. On the other hand, his partner Harbhajan Singh also bowled brilliantly bagging a couple for just 21 runs.

They bowled eight overs in tandem and restricted the Bangalore batsmen. Wickets also kept falling at regular intervals. Bangalore was reduced to 89/8 when Tim Southee came and played a breezy knock of 36 off 26 deliveries which helped them post a competitive total of 127 runs. Jadeja and Harbhajan bagged five wickets between them.

Chennai began quite well. Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu struck some delightful shots to start with. Watson smashed a huge six before getting castled of a toe-crushing Yorker from Umesh Yadav.

Rayudu kept going and played some gorgeous shots in the process. However, a couple of quick wickets brought Bangalore back into the match.

Southee took a brilliant catch in the deep to send back Raina to the pavilion. However, MS Dhoni yet again ensured Chennai reached the target with utmost ease in the end. He remained unbeaten on 31 which included three sixes of the 18^th over off Yuzvendra Chahal. He was at his imperious best and was supported well by Dwayne Bravo in the end.

Now here is what the winning skipper MS Dhoni said at the post-match presentation,

“I think it was a par score; the ball wasn’t coming on nicely. I thought spinners came into play; there was no turn for them. Both Jaddu and Bhajju Pa did very well; they kept us in the game after the start was provided by the fast bowlers. On this wicket, we can’t get to know what is a good score. Batting – it could have been slightly better. We were worried about the bowling department, in the last few games, there’s no one individual who has come up and owned that place, especially someone who can bowl in the death overs.

The good thing is we have a lot of all-rounders, we need to know who is our death bowling option going ahead, that’s what we are worried about. That’s the reason for so many changes in the team for every game. That forces us to make changes in the top-order, depending on who comes into the team.”

Multiple line-ups

“We are playing with multiple line-ups, so if someone on a good day bowls two or three overs (if possible four), that helps us keep Bravo at the end, he doesn’t need to bowl four overs always, it also helps the other bowlers to know what they are expected to do, he also knows what he has to do in that over. In the 9-10 games we have played, none of them have shown the consistency to bowl in the death overs.

They kept losing wickets, that helped me keep the off-spinner for the longer side and the left-arm spinner for the shorter side, Jadeja bowled very well, he was manoeuvring his pace, bowled with a flatter trajectory. Virat and AB – both getting out made things slightly easy – they bowled eight overs in tandem, that helped me to keep them going. As a team, we bowled really well.”