Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered their sixth loss of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, this time against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mumbai on Monday. The side were second best overall and if not for a brilliant innings by Ambati Rayudu that closed the gap between the two sides. However, the 36-year-old was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada, effectively sealing the win for PBKS.
Prior to their batting though, CSK were handed another injury scare after Rayudu bruised his hand while fielding in the first innings and needed treatment. But he came back really well while chasing a total of 188, and hit seven boundaries and six sixes in his 39-ball 78 after the top order failed again. After the match, head coach Stephen Fleming gave an update on his injury.
"The first check was around the break and his hand was bruising. It was just a case of icing that and getting that down and I think a little padding around the glove. It was the same hand that was broken sometime back, so it's still pretty tender and a knock like that can obviously cause some damage," Fleming said.
Chennai have been reeling with injury concerns from the beginning of the season. They have lost medium pacer Deepak Chahar as well as New Zealander Adam Milne for the rest of the season, and ahead of their match against PBKS, English all-rounder Moeen Ali was also ruled out after an injury in training on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand legend defended the decision to send the out-of-form Ravindra Jadeja ahead of the MS Dhoni, who scripted a three-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians (MI) in their previous outing. "We lost the wicket in the 12th (13th) over, pretty close to when we've seen MS Dhoni come in in the last 13 years, but today it was in the 12th over.
"We had this discussion a lot, MS' best time is from about 15 overs onwards and Jadeja has played some good innings for us from the stage and we don't throw that out based on 1-2 games," Fleming added.
