Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his bowlers did a good job and kept the opposition under constant pressure after their 49-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League here on Sunday.
Ajinkya Rahane (71 not out in 29 balls, five sixes, six fours) and Shivam Dubey (50 runs in 21 balls, two fours, five sixes) shared an 85-run partnership in just 32 balls for the third wicket. Scored 235 which is the highest score in T20 cricket at Eden Gardens.
Apart from these two, opener Devon Conway (56) also scored a half-century. In response, the Knight Riders team could only manage 188 runs for eight wickets despite half-centuries from Jason Roy (61 runs in 26 balls, five sixes, five fours) and Rinku Singh (53 not out in 33 balls, three fours, four sixes). . Off-spinner Mahesh Teekshana took 32 wickets while Tushar Deshpande took two wickets for 43 runs from Superkings.
Dhoni said after the match, “Yes, fast bowlers and spinners are doing their job well. We always put pressure on the opposition and if you look at their batting order, they have big hitters lower down the order and we respect that.
In the context of injuries to important players like Ben Stokes and Deepak Chahar, Dhoni said, “I keep it simple. Whoever is injured cannot do anything. I look at who looks better prepared and I look at who can take a chance and inspire. I hope it continues – not the injuries but the performances (laughs).”
Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana admitted that it was not easy to chase such a big target due to not getting a good start. Rana said, “We did not have a good start. We scored very few runs in the powerplay and after scoring so few runs in the powerplay, it is not easy to chase such a big target. Ajinkya (Rahane) once again played a brilliant inning.
Rana said that his team is not taking lessons from its mistakes and is constantly repeating mistakes. He said, “Our team is not learning from its mistakes. We are repeating the same mistakes against such big teams in such a big tournament which is a problem. We are not improving our performance in the tournament. It is difficult to digest that 235 runs were scored on this pitch.
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