After his team’s 18-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday (April 21), Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni quipped that it was easy for him to stay calm in tense moments as the contest was between the fast bowler and the batsman.
Invited to bat first, CSK piled up a massive 220/3 in 20 overs on the back of Faf du Plessis’ unbeaten 95 off 60 balls and Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 42-ball 64.
In reply, KKR were tottering at 31/5 inside the powerplay but Andre Russell (54 off 22 balls), Pat Cummins (66* off 34 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (40 off 24 balls) produced an incredible fightback to take the team to 202 all-out in 19.1 overs.
“Quite easy to stay calm in a game like this. From the 15th-16th over onwards the contest was between the fast bowler and the batsman. You can’t do too much. Can’t put different field. It’s about you vs me (batsman vs bowler),” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“The side that has won is possibly a side that has executed slightly better. But if they would’ve had more wickets, could’ve been different. You never know if they had played the full 20 overs.”
According to the CSK captain, 220 was a good score but it didn’t guarantee them a win.
“I have seen enough in cricket, always like to be humble. There’s no good reason if you have scored 220, the opposition can’t score. My lines to the players was that we have got good runs on the board but let’s be humble.”
For CSK, Deepak Chahar (4-29) was the wrecker-in-chief with the ball as he dismissed four top-order batsmen cheaply.
However, Dhoni joked that it’s not always good to get too many early wickets since it gives more time to the likes of Andre Russell.
“You don’t want to take too many early wickets! Big hitters coming in, 200 runs, there’s only one way they’ll play. Not much you can do. The only option was Jadeja if it was turning, the ball was stopping. But other than that there’s nothing much you can do.”
CSK skipper also lauded Gaikwad for his brilliant knock after enduring three consecutive failures in the tournament.
“The batting has been really good. Rutu is somebody who has shown his class in the last IPL. You always need to assess where he is mentally. Once when he was off guard, I just asked him how are you feeling today. When you put a question like that, you wait for the reactions, you see what’s in his eyes. There was enough in his reactions to suggest he wasn’t rattled. He has the basics to make it big. What would have helped him is the first few games last year,” Dhoni said.
Chennai Super Kings will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in their next game on Sunday (April 25) in Mumbai.
