Logjam in middle of points table : Win against MI gives us cushion, says Dhoni
Last Updated on May 6, 2023, 9:39 pm by News Desk
Chennai, May 6: Elated over Chennai Super King’s (CSK) win over Mumbai Indians that propelled the team to the second spot in the points table, CSK skipper M.S.Dhoni said today’s win gives the cushion, as there was a logjam in the middle of the points table.
Choosing to field first, which he said went with a majority opinion of the team’s think tank, CSK bowlers restricted MI to 139 for 8 and knocked off the target in 17.4 overs, scoring 140 for four, to register its sixth win in 11 matches and jump to second spot in points table with 13 points.
Speaking at the post match presentation ceremony after the team’s comfortable win in a surprisingly one-sided contest–which is MI skipper Rohit Sharma’s first IPL loss against CSK in Chepauk–Dhoni, said today’s was a crucial game for a simple reason–the middle of the table has a logjam.
“This win gives a cushion, but we can’t get comfortable with it because one or two teams are close and are facing each other”, he said.
“We haven’t had a couple of games go in our way, so, good to be on the winning side”, he said.
On his decision to bowl first, Dhoni said frankly he wanted to bat first, but went with the majority opinion of the think tank considering that there was a possibility of rain.
“Frankly I was slightly doubtful, I wanted to bat first, but the think tank together said there is chances of rain. I had a simple calculation that the game starts at 3:30pm and if we are batting first and get about 2 hours to play, major part of the game would be done with”, Dhoni, who marshalled his bowling resources well, said.
He said “But I was slightly outnumbered and I said ‘let’s go with the majority.
Ultimately, our strength has been to talk about things and decide what’s best for the team and go with the majority when there’s confusion”.
“As I said, it was slightly confusing as I felt the wicket could slow down. It has always been very good initially and I strongly felt that the rain would come after the majority of the game is done and would not have a big impact”, he said.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma sadi the team, which is placed sixth in the points table with 10 points, had an off day today as a batting unit and attributed the loss to the batsmen not putting enough runs on the board for the bowlers to defend.
When asked what went wrong for MI, he said ” Everywhere I guess. Our batters didn’t put up enough runs. We had an off-day as a batting unit”.
On the reason behind him moving to No.3 instead of opening the innings, Rohit said “Just felt that was what was comfortable after losing Tilak.
Thought we needed Indian bats in the middle overs but lost three in the powerplay”.
He was all praise for leg spinner Piyush Chawla, who is the only bowler to trouble the batsmen by picking up two wickets in an economic spell of 2 for 25 in four overs, and wanted other bowlers to rally around him.
“Piyush is bowling well, others need to rally around him. That’s what we expect, it’s a team game. But we can take a lot of learnings and take it forward”, Rohit said.
“Obviously, this year it’s felt like there has been no home advantage. We need to play good cricket, next two home games are important. We need to do well to come back”, he said.
SOURCE: UNI
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