The Indian Premier League in UAE has started off with a bang. The Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians contested a highly competitive match at Abu Dhabi. MS Dhoni opted to bowl first after winning the toss he thought dew might play a role in the second half. The opening duo of Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock started off with a bang against the new ball.
As soon as spin was introduced the run rate started dropping as the pitch got slower. Mumbai Indians continued losing key wickets at regular intervals and could only make 162 for 9 after their allotted 20 overs.
Chennai opens account with a win
The run chase of Chennai Super Kings started off with a worst possible way. The fast bowlers of MI, Trent Boult and James Pattinson sent Shane Watson and Murali Vijay respectively early on in the inning.
However, that brought Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plessis as they stitched together a brilliant partnership. Rayudu especially looked a class act as he changed the complete momentum of the game. He negotiated the threat of Jasprit Bumrah as he and du Plessis took CSK close to the target.
In the end, du Plessis scored the winning runs and took CSK to victory in the inaugural match of IPL 2020. The South Africans scored an unbeaten 58 off 44 delivers and sealed the match for his side.
Here’s what the winning captain MS Dhoni had to say from the match:
” We may practice enough but when you go on the field you need to assess the conditions and give it your best. It took us time for the bowlers to find the right length on this pitch. Plenty of positives but still plenty of areas for us to improve. In the second half, there is a bit of movement till the dew sets in. If you don’t lose wickets, you have the upper hand. These are the learnings. Rayudu had a wonderful partnership with Faf. Most of us are retired so luckily no injuries as well”, Dhoni in the post-match presentation.
Also Read: IPL 2020- Match 1, Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings: Match Report
“The experience pays off, everyone talks about it. You get it only after you play a lot of games. 300 ODIs is a dream for anybody to play and when you put an XI on the field, you need a good mix of youngsters and experienced players. You need the experienced players to guide the youngsters on and off the field. The young players get 60-70 days with the seniors in the IPL”.
“One thing we haven’t done is giving a chance to Jadeja and Curran to come up the order and express themselves which is what we did today. It was a psychological thing of saying that okay, we have batsmen down, so we’ll send one or two of them up to hit a few.
It is an amazing job done by the IPL, especially ones behind the scenes. To make it happen there are a hundred different things; as cricketers we easily criticize stuff. To have the practice facilities like these at the ICC academy were fantastic. Unless you get practice facilities you won’t play well in a tournament like this”, said Dhoni after the win over Mumbai Indians.
