Chennai Super Kings (CSK) registered their first win of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at their homeground. In a high-scoring game, CSK managed to win by 12 runs, thanks to Moeen Ali’s economical four-fer. But in the post-match presentation Dhoni was not happy with his bowlers as they conceded 18 extras including 13 wides and three no balls. The main defaulter was Tushar Deshpande who bowled an 11-ball over. The CSK skipper issued warning for his bowlers as they strayed away from their lines.
“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. Only reason we've scored those runs is if the surface is nice,” the 41-year-old said.
Dhoni was surprised with the wicket as he felt it would get slower. The wicketkeeper-batter wants his fast bowlers to improve as well.
“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. Fast bowling we need to slightly improve. Need to bowl according to the conditions,” he said.
Adjudged player of the match, Ali lauded Dhoni for his captaincy. On a pitch where as many as 22 sixes were hit in the match, it was CSK spinners who did the job.
“They have big hitters. Almost tried to bowl like Test cricket. Tried to spin the ball. The combination was nice (with Santner). The partnership worked well. MS knows what he's doing. He knows when to bowl players. I do believe off-spinners can bowl to right-handers especially bowling to the big leg-side. I'm not going to bowl all the time with Jadeja there,” the CSK all-rounder said.
Earlier, Dhoni contributed with a crucial cameo as well. Walking it to bat at no.8, he hit Mark Wood for two consecutive sixes to help his side post 217/7.
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