Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lavished praise on opener Ruturaj Gaikwad and veteran all-rounder Dwayne Bravo for their outstanding performances that helped the team top the points table with a 20-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 30 of Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) in Dubai on Sunday (September 19).
Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first but the decision seemed to have backfired when CSK were reduced to 24/4 at the end of the powerplay with Ambati Rayudu retired hurt after taking a hit on his arm.
Young opener Ruturaj Gaikwad batted sensibly and registered his IPL career-best of 88* and was well supported by Ravindra Jadeja (26) and Dwayne Bravo (23) to help the team recover to post 156/6.
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Mumbai Indians, who were missing captain Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Hardik Pandya, lost three wickets before reaching 50 and apart from Saurabh Tiwary (50*), rest of the batting failed to make an impression as they finished at 136/8. Bravo starred with the ball too, picking up 3/25.
Reflecting on Gaikwad and Bravo's 39-run partnership in just 16 balls, Dhoni said during the post-match presentation ceremony, “I think at 30/4, you want to get something respectable on the board and Ruturaj and Bravo got us more than what we expected. We had to bat exceptionally to get to 140, but to get to 160 was tremendous. The wicket was slightly two-paced and slow to start off with,”
“Most of them got out to the slowness. If you come later and you want to go hard and that's why we lost wickets. I would have tried to get into the eighth or ninth over and then take it from there. You always think you could have gone harder earlier, but with wickets down, it was a risk,” he added.
Providing an update on Rayudu's injury, Dhoni seemed optimistic about his chances of being fit for the next game, as he said, “It depends on the situation. Rayudu was smiling, so he hasn't broken his arm. He has four days now and that should help him.”
CSK will next play Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Friday, September 24 in Sharjah.
(With Star Sports inputs)
