Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori praised Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni for his amazing judgement of the Delhi pitch after their comfortable 7-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 on Wednesday. Dhoni had said the Arun Jaitley Stadium pitch looked tacky and that was seen in the first innings as SRH struggled to score runs quickly even with a well-set David Warner and Manish Pandey (61) who added plenty of runs in the middle.
David Warner played 55 balls to score 57 with a strike rate of just over 103. The SRH captain has also acknowledged that his slow innings was one of the reasons behind their defeat in Delhi
“We were looking to bowl first. Looks a bit tacky and the boys who practiced yesterday said there was quite a bit of dew,” MS Dhoni had said at the toss.
Dhoni’s prediction proved right as batsmen found it difficult to score on the pitch in the first half of the game. SRH put up 171 runs for 3 courtesy of the late onslaught from Kane Williamson (26 not out), Pandey, and Kedar Jadhav (14 not out).
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“Should back Dhoni’s assessment no matter what, I think that’s what we’ve learned from all of this,” Vettori told ESPNcricinfo when asked about whether Dhoni judged the Delhi wicket perfectly. “I think Sam Curran bowled well upfront I think he got the important wicket of Jonny Bairstow and because of the way SRH are set up when they lose one of their opening batters, they can at times look a bit tentative. We saw how Warner just kept hitting fielders and combined with some good bowling from CSK They used their resources pretty well.”
While chasing, CSK openers – Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis got off to a flying start and they added over 100 runs for the opening wicket. Even, both of them scored the fifties as well.
After the win, Gaikwad said: “Means a lot (his highest IPL score). Little bit disappointed couldn’t finish it well. Think it was little bit two paced, little bit low bounce. Scoring big shots was difficult. It was all about how you hit gaps and hit over the fielders. Just planned who is the better bowler on this surface, who is not. One or two bowlers had a bit of an off day, cashed in on them. Just want to keep performing each and every match.”
