Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni praised the performance of Indian Premier League (IPL) debutant Rajvardhan Hangargekar but believes that he still needs to work on his no-balls as his side suffered a five-wicket loss at the hands of defending champions Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Friday, March 31.
Hangargekar impressed in his first match in the league, taking three wickets and conceding 36 runs. He also conceded a couple of unnecessary no-balls, but all-in-all, Dhoni was left impressed with his performance.
"I think Raj (Hangargekar) has pace and he will get better with time. Think the bowlers will get better, a no-ball is something that's in your control, so you need to work on that. I felt two left-armers will be a better option so I went ahead with them. Shivam (Dube) was an option, but I felt comfortable with the bowlers overall," Dhoni said after the match.
However, the veteran wicketkeeper wanted more from the middle order of his team, having looked like scoring a 200-plus total before Titans stemmed the flow of runs in the middle overs. They eventually scored 178 for seven, with the Titans chasing down with four balls to spare and five wickets in hand, courtesy of Gaikwad's 92 off 50 balls.
He opined that the middle-overs batting let them down. "We all knew there will be dew. We could have done a bit more with the batsman ship. Ruturaj (Gaikwad) was brilliant, he times the ball well and he's a pleasure to watch. The way he picks his options is pleasing to watch. I think it's important for the youngsters to step in," said Dhoni referring to Gaikwad's 92 off 50 balls.
Meanwhile, Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya was pleased with the team's performance. "We did put ourselves in a difficult situation but Rahul and Rashid did very well. We were happy at the mid-innings because at one point they looked like getting 200, but we got those couple of wickets to pull things back."
He is not too pleased with the impact player, and said, "having this Impact rule makes my job difficult. I have too many options, and because of this someone will bowl less. In this game I realised bowling hard lengths was the way to go, that's why Alzarri bowled late.
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