Bowlers could have bowled better, execution wasn't right: MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni fined for slow over-rate

Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni was fined 12 lakhs for his team maintaining a slow over-rate during the match against Delhi Capitals in Mumbai. "As it was his team's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr Dhoni was fined Rs 12 lakh," stated an IPL media release. CSK had a disappointing start to the IPL 2021 campaign after DC chased down a target of 189 runs by 7 wickets and more than an over to spare. DC’s openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan began the proceedings in a steady manner as the two players put on 138 for the first wicket. Shaw continued his lethal style of aggressive batting and hammered a 38-ball 72 that included three maximums and 9 boundaries. Dhawan held the other end and notched up 85 off 54 during the chase. Shardul Thakur scalped a couple of wickets for CSK while Dwayne Bravo got one. Earlier, CSK lost some early wickets and were left struggling at 7/2 when Moeen Ali and Suresh Raina chipped in with some runs. Moeen who made his debut for CSK scored 36 in 24 balls while Raina who had missed the IPL 2020 in UAE made a fine comeback in the cash-rich league with a half-century. CSK eventually put 188/7 in 20 overs riding on a late surge from Sam Curran who smacked 34* off 15 deliveries. Chris Woakes and Avesh Khan picked up a couple of wickets each for DC while R Ashwin and Tom Curran had a wicket apiece to their name. This was the first time when Rishabh Pant was captaining in the IPL and the wicket-keeper batsman had a positive start to his new role. Pant was earlier handed over the captaincy after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the IPL 2021 with injury. Iyer had injured himself during the England series at home.

IPL 2021: This is not a tuk-tuk Chennai

The Indian Premier League in its two-day journey so far has thrown us surprises aplenty including a revamp Chennai Super kings that’s now ready to showcase its ‘spark’ and overcome its lack of intent, clearly evident in the last season. In the very first game, the team selection, the shot selection and the formation of the batting lineup were signs enough that the men in yellow want to boss the game and shed their ‘tuk-tuk’ image of the last two seasons. Boundary hitting CSK is back Chennai had a slow start and looked to go back to being their 2020 self, making no effort to get on the bullet train until and unless it was very much necessary. However, once settled the English import Moeen Ali started to shed the defensive garb, hitting Ravichandran Ashwin for sixes that looked easy on the eyes. Suresh Raina, the comeback man for the Yellow Army was brilliant as well, hitting 54 off 36 balls, giving the much-needed boost to the scorecard. In total, the Super Kings hit 26 boundaries, their highest count since the last 41 games. The change in approach was also visible from the fact that in the middle phase (7-15 overs), MS Dhoni’s men hit eight sixes, three more than their highest ever in the last season. Higher strike-rates, right batsmen at the right order In the entire last season, all the CSK batsmen had very low strike rates except for Ravindra Jadeja who hit runs at 171.85 per hundred. Barring him, there was none who went past 140, with their second-best being 131.91 by Sam Curran. In the first game of this season though, all the batsmen, who faced more than 10 balls, scored at a rate higher than 140, which should be the ideal way out. Sam Curran though went beserk in the 19th over and finished his innings with a strike rate of 226.67. Ali, Jadeja and Raina, all scored at a rate in excess of 150 as well. The credit of this should also go to the change in the batting lineup introduced by the CSK management. Moeen Ali, brought in for his six-hitting abilities was sent at number three just as Faf du Plessis fell, showing that the team meant business and wanted quick runs even if wickets fall, once again the ideal approach in T20s, mastered by the England team at the international level. The ball that Dhoni himself got out was not a wicket-taking one, but the frame of mind that MSD came in with, suggested that he didn’t want to do any more ‘tuk-tuk’. He pulled a ball but was betrayed by age probably, which couldn’t get his bat to the shot as early as it should have, dragging on the ball to his wickets, instead of sending it in the stands, which a Dhoni of three years ago would have done with ease. But the main point of citation remains intact that CSK mean business and they are going to go after the bowling attacks of every team this season. Batting deep helps the cause The approach that CSK has adapted is also fuelled by the confidence that they have in their batting lineup. They bat almost till 11 with Dwayne Bravo at nine and Shardul Thakur at 10 and there is no need to tell how dangerous they both could be. For instance, Thakur, in the recently concluded India- England limited-overs series, scored a 21 ball 30 and a four-ball 10. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy too, he played a knock of 57 ball 92 against Himachal Pradesh, suggesting how good he is at manoeuvring that long handle. Deepak Chahar has the best score of 55 in T20s and two cities in First Class to his name. It is this deep batting ability that is pushing Chennai to change their line of attack and instead of waiting for the opportune moment, they are now going all guns blazing right from the start. Suresh Raina's comeback a big boost Ravichandran Ashwin was hit for his third-worst figure in his entire IPL career of 14 years (conceded 47 in four overs). On top of that, the assault was led by two left-handers, the kind of batsmen Ashwin champions himself over. To make matters, even damaging, he was hit by a Suresh Raina, who last touched the bat in a competitive game, way back in January this year. Raina’s innings was a turning point for the Chennai batting lineup. Starting cautiously (22 from 19 balls), he went from strength to strength and hit the last 12 balls that he faced for 27 runs. An innings of that sort was bound to change the complexion of the game and it did, helping CSK reached 188, a par total by all means of imagination on the Wankhede wicket. Lessons from the loss Although Chennai lost the game to Delhi Capitals by seven wickets and in a humiliating manner as well. But the way they approached their batting showed that they are trying to shed that image of a low scoring side. Things didn’t go well for them in the second inning where they dropped catches (three of them), bowlers didn’t bowl the right areas (didn’t bowl even a single shoulder-high bouncer to Prithvi Shaw). Knowing Dhoni and Stephen Fleming, they are men driven by a process more than results. Thus an attacking Chennai, that bats deep, looks to be the order of the tournament for all the Yellow Army fans. And as far as the modern-day game is concerned, it looks like the right approach as well. The only change needed is the onboarding of a 'hit the deck' fast bowler in place of Bravo, just to bring variety in the attack as all three pacers look the same.

IPL 2021 | CSK vs DC: What Experts said as Dhawan-Shaw stamped authority at Wankhede

It was a walk in the park sort of day for the Delhi Capitals in the opener as they dismantled Chennai Super Kings bowling line-up to register a thumping victory in their opening encounter of IPL 2021. Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan broke no sweat at all in chasing down 189 as the team comfortably reached the target with one over to spare. While Shaw was on a roll hitting every shot in the batsman’s playbook, Dhawan played the situation, giving as much strike as possible to the maverick that was Prithvi Shaw. While the Mumbaikar scored 38 balls 72, the Delhi-born reached his calculated 84 off 54 balls. Captains' Viewpoints Captaining a major team like Delhi Capitals for the first time, Rishabh Pant reacted to the win very calmly saying that they never went after the net run rate even after being in a great position in the chase. “No, there was no effort for the NRR. Prithvi and Shikhar did well for us in the PP. They kept it simple and looked for boundaries,” he said. Delhi were 151 for 1 at the end of the 15th over, and with just 38 needed off the last 30 balls, they could have chased it down early. Talking about the butterflies in the stomach with the first day at a new job, the 23-year-old agreed that he did get nervous in the middle phase. “In the middle phase, I was under some pressure. But we did well towards the end.” After conceding 136 in the 15 overs, Delhi came back strong and if it wasn’t for the last Tom Curran over in which he was tonked for 23 runs by brother Sam, the Capitals would have restricted Super Kings to under 180. Saying that it was very special walking out for the toss with MS Dhoni, Pant revealed that it took courage to back the players that they had got, instead of lamenting over not having Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, their best bowlers from the last season. “We were thinking as to what we will do without Nortje and Rabada and I thought we had to do with the options we have,” Pant said. MS Dhoni, the losing skipper, who had a horrific game with the bat and also as a skipper, blamed the dew and poor execution from bowlers for this loss. “A lot depended on dew, and that factor played on our mind from the start and that's why we wanted to get as many runs as possible. The batters did a good job to reach 188,” Dhoni said in the post-match interview. “The execution of the bowlers was poor and there were boundary balls that they bowled, “ continued the 39-year-old, who himself got out for a second-ball duck. “..but the bowlers would have learned and they will apply that in future games,” he further hoped. Conceding that Delhi were a better bowling side, Dhoni said, “Their (Delhi) bowlers bowled a great line when it was stopping and seaming a bit.” Expert Opinion Shaw, who, before coming to the IPL had impressed one and all with his batting display in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, was the apple of the eye of the expert’s on Twitter. Dhawan too received accolades for being neck to neck with Shaw in stroke-making. Veteran cricket journalist and columnist Ayaz Memon summed up the game well picking out the good and bad from it very cleanly. Aakash Chopra on the other hand praised the Delhi team which was without the services of their best and still came out on top. Vimal Kumar, a broadcast cricket journalist picked out the only fault in the Delhi Capitals unit, their spinners, two of the best in the business- Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin going for plenty. Vikrant Gupta was of the opinion that DC openers Shaw and Dhawan had taken over the game from the CSK in the first 10 overs only, letting the team relax and chase the total down easily. Popularly known as the Cricket Geek, Peter Miller, termed Dhawan-Shaw the best opening pair aesthetically and it did fit well today considering the kind of shots they played. Then there were those tweets, which should be called Wasim Jaffer special. Witty, charming humorous and touching. Foreigner Indian cricketer Rohan Gavaskar too made it to this list. While the Capitals will next meet Rajasthan Royals on April 15, Chennai will take on Punjab Kings in the very next game to try and come back from this humiliation at Wankhede.

IPL 2021 | Hits & Flops as Prithvi Shaw-Shikhar Dhawan show dethrone CSK in their season opener

Blistering half-centuries from openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw helped the Delhi Capitals annihilate Chennai Super Kings in the second game of the 14th edition of the IPL in Mumbai. In a fitting end to all the hypes and build-ups for a contest between MS Dhoni and Rishabh Pant, the Capitals’ skipper smashed a Shardul Thakur’s delivery past the long-on boundary and left MS Dhoni a helpless man behind the wicket. The match, well-projected as the battle between the master and the apprentice was stolen away by a riveting Prithvi Shaw who carried his form from the Vijay Hazare Trophy. On the other side of the 22 yards, Dhawan looked in menacing form and must have sent a timely reminder of his prowess with the bat to all his critics. Here, we will decipher the best and worst performances from the second game of the IPL 2021 Hits Prithvi Shaw The downward curve of Prithvi Shaw was established on the second ball of India’s Test series against Australia when he was bowled by Mitchell Starc. The dismissal was followed by another similar mode in the second innings and his technique was scrutinised by purists and trolled by the fans. After coming back to India, he went to Pravin Amre to work on his technique in which his bat speed was creating a big gap between his pads and wicket. The move paid dividends straight away as he plundered more than 800 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this year. However, a bigger test was due for him and IPL 2021 were to be his first moment of reckoning. In almost a poetic justice, Shaw got going on the second ball of his innings albeit it was not a lethal one and did not come from an angle of trouble. Instead, it was a wayward delivery from Deepak Chahar who went searching for glory ball right at the start. The timing was sumptuous and Shaw was off and running. Talking about confidence, he showed, where he is at the moment when a half-decent delivery from Chahar in his third over was pumped over long-on from a front foot press. The shot exemplified that Shaw and his eagle eyes to pick up the length f the ball early was back. There was no stopping Shaw from there and be it Sam Curran’s full deliveries or Ravindra Jadeja’s attempt to bowl into the pitch, everything went rollicking to the boundary ropes with amazing ease. The front foot press was impressive and all the attempts to check his fiery strokes went down the drain as MS Dhoni was left clueless behind the wicket. However, the Super Kings bowlers were guilty of not trying to change things up for the right-hander. Shaw was on full flow and when Dhoni brought Sahrdul Thakur to shake things up like he has been doing for Virat Kohli in international colours, he suffered the absolute might of Shaw’s range of shots. A back of a length delivery was smashed past cover, a slower ball was guided between the backward point and short third man, while a touch fuller length disappeared over the top. Three different types of deliveries on three consecutive balls were dispatched for boundaries and Shaw was ruling the show. Having seen pacers going for a whole heap of runs, Dhoni brought Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali to contain the DC batsmen. The night was to be Shaw’s though, and Jadeja was sent over long with absolute disdain and Ali was not accurate enough to challenge him. Shaw reached a 27-ball-fifty to earn redemption after suffering an excruciating season last year. The fifty did not provide any respite to the Super Kings, but they have to blame themselves for spilling as many as two chances off him. Shaw was not complaining and there was a hunger for more and more as he was looking to make up for whatever he has had to suffer in the last few months due to his poor form. By the time, he was gone to a slower one from Dwayne Bravo in the 14th over, the Capitals were well on their way to chase what would have appeared as a challenging total at the halfway stage. Shikhar Dhawan Ask any cricket fan what Shikhar Dhawan is known for, and the most probable answer will be timing through the off side. He has been a stupendous timer of the ball and that attribute defines the kind of form he is in at the start of an innings. Having conceded a boundary through the leg side from Shaw at the other end, Chahar ran in and pitched his fourth ball of the game in the fuller region. Sadly for him, the ball turned out to be a half volley and that too a wide one. Dhawan pulled out a bludgeoning drive to send the ball behind the backward point to the boundary like a tracer bullet. If that drive off Chahar was not an ominous sign for the Super Kings, Sam Curran repeated the mistake of bowling full to him. A resplendent straight drive dispatched the ball back past the bowler in no time and the Capitals openers announced their onslaught in pursuit of 189 runs in their season opener. There was no respite for Super Kings and Curran was treated in a more brutal fashion in his next over with an equally splendid drive that went to the Capitals dugout. While Shaw was going all guns blazing at one end, Dhawan was matching fire with fire at the other end. His confidence was visible when he launched a back of length delivery from off-spinner Ali over the midwicket. He attempted to reach the pitch of the ball but in the end, muscled it over midwicket, but not with his otherwise ferocious slog sweep. Dhawan reached a 35-ball-fifty and was looking threatening for another century after scoring a match-winning ton against the men in yellow in the last season. There was no express pace bowler in the Super Kings line-up today and the fact was not lost on the experience of Dhawan. The old horse Dwayne Bravo relies on his slower balls till a point that they are not variations anymore and he treated him exactly like that, as a spinner. CSK’s bowlers would have seen the Capitals pacers using cutters to good effect and Dhawan was proactive on that front as well. He kept moving in his crease, sometimes even going across the stumps closer to the wide line and none of the Chennai bowlers had any sense of imagination to fox him. His assault was so disheartening that Shardul Thakur was forced to do a Wahab Riaz (bowling far outside the stump line, when batsman can’t reach a delivery on the stump line) in the latter overs. He could not reach another three-figure-mark but his breathtaking innings literally sent the Super Kings gasping on the second night of the IPL 2021. Avesh Khan In the absence of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje—their trump cards in the last season, the Capitals under the leadership of Pant and Ponting had the option of picking an all-Indian pace attack of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Avesh Khan. But, true to his characteristics, Ponting played a high-risk game right at the start of the season played only Avesh out of the trio. The move of overlooking both Ishant and Umesh was rather surprising and Ponting would have dealt much flak in case it were to go wrong. Avesh Khan returned as a much more lean man and was at the top of his game right from the start. His length was nagging and the line got better with each ball. He did not take long to produce a jaffa to catch Faf du Plessis in a no man’s land. The length was perfect for a seamer who relies on natural variations off the pitch and du Plessis was gone for all money in front of the stumps. The move was working for the Capitals, but Moeen Ali tried to target him in his next over. Being asked a question on the back of a splendid drive from Moeen, Avesh showed his repertoire and tested Ali with a chest-hight short ball. However, Ali was up to the task and hit him for consecutive boundaries. A spell of two overs with the new ball and taking one wicket of du Plessis would have been a job well done for him, but there was more for him on the night. After an initial hiccup, Raina and Ali had brought CSK back on track to put a big total on the board. Pant recalled Avesh right when Dhoni walked out to bat. Avesh Khan bowls hard length and it worked wonders for the Capitals as Dhoni was beaten for pace off the pitch as the ball skidded off the surface and the Super Kings captain went out for duck for the first time since 2015 edition of IPL. He conceded only seven runs in his third over and clogged the momentum back in Capitals favour with the wicket of Dhoni. He was persisted with for another over and he did not disappoint his captain yet again. However, the mode of weapon was a cutter as the pair of Jadeja and Curran could not get a grasp of his variations. A bowling figure of 4-0-23-2 looks fantastic for a T20 match, more so when the opposition post a total of 188 runs in their 20 overs of batting. Needless to say, Avesh Khan repudiated all the doubts about him and cemented his place for some matches even when the thunderbolt pair of Rabada and Nortje will back in the playing XI. Flops MS Dhoni MS Dhoni has had a disastrous IPL last year and the current season was touted to be his swansong. There was a huge build-up for his return, so much so that the official Twitter handle of the league tweeted a video of him smiling while coming in for the toss. The Super Kings have undergone quite a few changes from the last season and the fans would have expected a better return from the men in yellow. What followed was equally, if not more disastrous for both Dhoni and his team in their opening clash of the season. Dhoni, the batsman, could not utilise the opportunity of a platform to launch an onslaught on the bowlers and was caught rooted to the crease with a one that skidded off the surface. Dhoni got his last duck in the IPL way back in 2015 and it establishes his consistency of delivery and it was just the last season when he struggled to get the ball off the square. Having failed as one of the architects of the Super Kings batting, Dhoni would have been relieved as Curran and Jadeja guided the team to a total they could be confident of defending. Dhoni was deemed quite a defensive captain in the longest format of the game, but the same experts have touted him for being proactive in the shortest one. None of those virtues were visible during the game against the Capitals when the pair of Shaw and Dhawan were tearing apart the bowlers. He did not appear to be in control of the game and rather looked clueless on most occasions albeit the credit should be given to both Shaw and Dhawan for bringing out their best and unravelling the worst of the Kings. He would have seen the Capitals bowlers making good use of the cutters and he should have switched to Bravo a bit early in the innings when Shaw was enjoying pace on the ball. He could have slowed the pace of the game by asking his bowlers to bowl into the pitch at a slower pace but bowlers were pedestrian with one-dimensional tactics of bowling full to Shaw and Dhawan. The Super Kings copped quite a hammering at the hands of Shaw and Dhawan and Dhoni will have to take a fair share of responsibility for the annihilation in the very first game of the season. Ravichandran Ashwin R Ashwin has been quite vocal about his international ambitions in the white-ball formats in the World T20 scheduled to be played in India later this year. Ashwin has only the IPL this year to make his case for the World T20 and the start has been terrible for the experienced pro. Ashwin emerged on to the sense from the stage of the IPL and hence it is quite fitting for him that IPL is being stacked as another bridge of opportunities for his international destinations. Ashwin was treated disdainfully more worryingly by the two left-hander sin Moeen Ali and Suresh Raina. But, what would be hurting Ashwin tonight that he was hit over the top by both the batsmen from their backfoot and batsmen also by coming down the pitch. It signifies that the off-spinner was not accurate on all accounts and could not execute whatever plan he had against the left-handers one bit. Ashwin has had the chance of putting his hands up right from the start of the IPL as the stocks of the Yuzvendra Chahal-Kuldeep Yadav has started dwindling in the last few months. However, a bowling figure reading 4-0-47-1 will hurt him both personally and also his chances if at all he stood any of them to make it into the Indian squad for the World T20. The game finished as a near-perfect one for the Capitals who did not miss the regular skipper Shreyas Iyer one bit while the result has left the Super Kings scrambling to search for the answers to many uncomfortable questions just two days in the tournament.