There was a lot of buzz around the opening game of the Indian Premier League 2019. The battle was between MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both teams have their share of rivalry in the IPL history and experts often term it as ‘Southern Rivals’. While Dhoni’s team has won three IPL title, Kohli is yet to get his hands on the silverware. BCCI gave an opportunity of a grand opening of the season with such a high profile contest.
However, things didn’t unfold how they were planned. RCB batted first and got bundled out for a mere 70 runs on a spin-friendly track. Chennai had three world-class spinners in their rank that ran riot on a star-studded Bengaluru batting order. The pitch was not easy to bat and Chennai had to consume 18 overs in order to chase this modest total.
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The pitch gained criticism from all the corners along with two captains involving in this clash. Dhoni openly lashed the track and asked for better tracks in future. While Kohli rued his luck of playing with just two spinners.
Meanwhile, BCCI has urged the IPL franchise to not prepare such tracks and should provide teams sporting pitch. A senior BCCI official said that although the board doesn’t interfere with the nature of wickets prepared in the IPL, it should also not mean that they are grossly titled in the favour of either the batsmen or the bowlers.
“The franchises have the freedom to prepare wickets without the interference of the BCCI, but the wickets should be sporting and not heavily tilted in favour of either the batsmen or bowlers,”
Business Standard quoted the source as saying.
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Dhoni’s team won the game by seven wickets in 17.4 overs and the captain didn’t look too pleased with that pitch.
“It was too slow and it just reminded me of the 2011 Champions League wicket. After the IPL, we came back and we had a really good season, but the wicket got re-laid and all of a sudden we found it very difficult,” MSD said at the post-match presentation.
CSK will be playing against Delhi Capitals tonight at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Old Delhi. Both teams have won their first game of the season and this match is expected to be another cracking contest of IPL 2019.
