IPL 2019:Really Surprised By How Slow The Wicket Was: MS Dhoni

Defending IPL champions Chennai Super Kings started from where they had left last season as they thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight wickets to kickstart their title-defence in style. Right from the toss till the winning runs were score, almost everything went the MS Dhoni-led side’s way.

Dhoni decided to field first after winning the toss on a sluggish track and his bowlers completely justified the decision. Harbhajan Singh ran through the Royal Challengers’ top-order to leave them reeling at 38 for 3. The veteran spinner dismissed Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers in quick succession to put the Super Kings on top. Debutant duo Shimron Hetmyer and Shivam Dube failed to get going too as the Royal Challengers found themselves 5 down for just 45.

.@ChennaiIPL beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 7 wickets in the opening encounter of #VIVOIPL 2019.#CSKvRCB pic.twitter.com/ghDdVeF9PD

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 23, 2019

At one stage it looked like they would not even cross the 50-run mark but opener Parthiv Patel waged a lone battle, scoring 29 before becoming the last wicket to fall.  For the Super Kings, Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir starred with the ball, picking up three wickets apiece.

King'u da, annen Singh'u da! #WhistlePodu #Yellove #CSKvRCB ?? pic.twitter.com/NJ5LHkyAib

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 23, 2019

In reply, the Super Kings also struggled to get going on the tough pitch. In-form Shane Watson departed for a ten-ball ball duck. Ambati Rayudu and Suresh Raina then steadied the ship but found it tough to score at a brisk pace.  Moeen Ali then dismissed Raina for 19 to reduce the hosts to 40 for 2. The Super Kings eventually chased down the total in the 18th over.

Speaking at the end of the game, MS Dhoni said:

“I wasn’t sure about the wicket. We played a practice match on this wicket and it was a high scoring match, but usually in practice matches we score 30 runs more than a normal match. But we were really surprised by how slow the wicket was. It reminded me of a Champions League wicket in 2011 after we won the IPL. The wicket definitely needs to be much better, even with dew it was spinning big. 80, 90, 100 is really low-scoring and if you have geniune spinners in your lineup you can create a lot of trouble.

“We have communicated it really well to the players as to when they’ll feature in and in which conditions. Harbhajan’s is one slot and we’ll shuffle it around. He would never mind bowling on such wickets. We need to score runs as well, ours is a batting attack where batsmen like to play their shots and you can’t control the toss which means that we might have to bowl first in matches as well. Other teams have good spinners as well and this isn’t the pitch we are looking forward to,” added MS Dhoni.