Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins was left stunned after the packed house at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium cheered for none other than MS Dhoni. In Chennai’s match against SRH on Friday, April 5, the legendary MS Dhoni came out to bat in the 19th over. Although he scored only 1 run off 2 balls, the crowd in Hyderabad got their wish fulfilled after getting to watch Dhoni, who guided India to 3 ICC titles during his tenure.
“The crowd was crazy tonight. When MS walked out, it was as loud as I’ve ever heard,” Pat Cummins said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
However, Cummins had a memorable day for several reasons. He removed the dangerous-looking Shivam Dube to reach the landmark of 50 wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Moreover, SRH beat Chennai by 6 wickets to register their second win in the tournament as well. Dube scored 45 runs before Cummins dismissed him. Thereafter, SRH chased down the target of 166 with 11 balls in hand. Moreover, Cummins also heaped praise on Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head for a flying start to their chase.
“Different soil. Slowed up a little bit as the game went on. Shivam was hitting it well against the spin. Thought we’ll take chance with off-cutters. First thing is always to get the points,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to be bowling to him (Abhishek) and Trav Head at the top.”
On the other hand, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad rued their powerplay bowling after the six-wicket loss against Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Speaking after the match, Gaikwad said, “I think to start off with our bowling, we didn’t have the best powerplay, with one dropped catch and one big over. However, I feel that dragging the game till the 18th over was a great effort. 170-175 is a par score. If we had a good powerplay with the ball, we could have won the game. There was slight dew in the later stages.”
“It was a slow pitch. Towards the end, their bowling was effective. We couldn’t take advantage in the final five overs. We were in a promising position at the halfway mark, but they bowled well in the latter part of the innings. I think it was a black soil pitch, so we kind of expected the slowness. But as the ball aged, it slowed down even further, and we couldn’t capitalize at the end. Additionally, they utilized the conditions well on their side of the boundary,” Gaikwad further added.
CSK will next play against KKR in their next match on Monday, April 8.
