If Chennai Super Kings scored the required 17 runs required off Mohit Sharma\u2019s last over vs Kings XI Punjab on Sunday in Mohali, it would have been one of the greatest chases of all the IPL seasons shepherd by none other than MS Dhoni\u2014the best finisher India has ever produced.<\/p>\n
However, Kings XI Punjab worked out a strategy of bowling it wide to Dhoni in the death overs and put the brakes on the Chennai captain\u2019s assault.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the game, Kings XI Punjab\u2019s most consistent batsman KL Rahul said, \u201cThe plan was to bowl wide yorkers to MS Dhoni because he was struggling with his back and we felt like he couldn\u2019t reach out to many.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether good back or bad back, if you pitch it in his arc he is still going to hit it miles. It was good learning for our bowling attack. Like I said, it\u2019s still early stages in the IPL, we will learn what lengths are good for our bowlers and they\u2019ll learn from their mistakes,\u201d Rahul added.<\/p>\n
Chennai were chasing a stiff target of 198 runs and Dhoni played an unbeaten 44-ball knock of 79 runs, which got Chennai very near to the target.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe back is pretty bad, but god has given me lot of power and I don\u2019t need to use my back a lot. My arms can do the job. It shouldn\u2019t be too bad because I know what happened, and when you know the extent of injury, you know how bad it is,\u201d said Dhoni after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the games have been close, which means the individuals in the team get to learn a lot, but yes, overall we need to improve. We have confidence in Ravindra Jadeja. Suresh Raina at the top of the order, one left-hander, and if we can have Jadeja as a floater… so if we can just give him the opportunity – which we haven\u2019t so far – I hope he can come good,\u201d added Dhoni, talking about the team combination.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab were propelled by Chris Gayle\u2019s fiery 33-ball knock of 63 runs. He along with KL Rahul added 96 runs for their team for the opening stand.<\/p>\n
Throwing light on their opening wicket stand and what brand of cricket Kings XI Punjab are aiming at, KL Rahul elaborated, \u201cThe plan was very clear – the batsmen will keep going for the boundary and keep looking to get runs. We\u2019ve said this before the tournament started, that that\u2019s the kind of cricket we want to play – very aggressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, like in Bangalore, it may not come off but it\u2019s okay, we\u2019ll still keep going there and try to get boundaries and sixes. That was the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Praising Gayle, who was playing his first match of the season, Rahul said, \u201cIt is amazing news for our team and bad news for the other teams that Chris is in great form. He is hitting the ball well and we all know he\u2019s a player who can win games single-handedly and demolish attacks on his day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what he did today and we want him and expect him to continue this form forward, be consistent and get a lot of runs for us, because if he gets going there\u2019s no stopping him.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked the reason for letting spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rehman bowl only three overs, KL Rahul explained the rationale, stating \u201cWe were thinking that we will bowl Mujeeb against a new batsman. We were hoping that we would get Mahi bhai out somewhere in the 14th or the 15th over. Then, whoever came, we were holding him back for Bravo and the other batsmen to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a mystery bowler, not everyone can pick him and for a new batsman it\u2019s even harder. Mahi bhai had already played a couple of overs so we though we\u2019ll maybe hold him back for later. If we somehow managed to get Mahi bhai out then he will come into the attack. We had already bowled Yuvi in the eighth or the ninth over, so one bowler could have gotten away with three overs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Chennai Super Kings scored the required 17 runs required off Mohit Sharma\u2019s last over vs Kings XI Punjab on Sunday in Mohali, it would have been one of the greatest chases of all the IPL seasons shepherd by none other than MS Dhoni\u2014the best finisher India has ever produced. However, Kings XI Punjab worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28180,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178\/revisions\/28180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}