The current champions played a push in the first match of IPL. Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the Kolkata Knight Riders by storm today. Dhoni brought the unbeaten half-century in those fours and one six to the Chennai Super Kings.
After losing the toss at Wangkhede, Chennai went down to bat. At one stage, there was a fear of being rolled down by an arrow. Chennai scored 131 runs in an innings that mistaken the age of 40-year-old Dhoni.
But Kolkata made no mistake in reaching the target of 132 runs. Kolkata won the first match of the 15th IPL by 6 wickets under the new captain. Shreyas Iyer's team won with 9 balls in hand.
AB de Villiers was expecting something like that. With the removal of the leadership, Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be seen again - the batsman who has won the hearts of the spectators by hitting sixes and fours. Dhoni has been released in the 15th year of IPL. Chennai on the field, but Dhoni did not toss as captain. Just started playing as a player. On the same day, Dhoni was the highest scorer in Chennai.
Despite Robin Uthappa's best efforts, Chennai did not have a good start. After losing the toss, Chennai lost 2 wickets and scored 35 runs in the powerplay. After a while, Uthappa, who made 26 off 21 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes, also returned. Chennai lost 5 wickets for 61 runs in 10.5 overs with a ridiculous run out and Russell's short ball. The new captain Rabindra Jadeja who scored 6 runs from 10 balls at the crease. Dhoni landed at seven.
After that, the two played a game that was both neutral and Chennai supporters also raised questions. At the end of 18 overs, Chennai scored 74 runs. That means only 23 runs in a pair of 36 balls! The current captain is unbeaten on 16 off 22 balls, while the former captain is unbeaten on 15 off 25 balls.
Andre Russell's third over made the situation a little more tolerable. In that over, Dhoni scored 14 runs in three fours. Chennai has not passed 100 yet. In the next over, Shivam Mavi got only 4 runs from the first four balls. Four Dhoni with a full length ball cover in the fifth ball. The next ball is a flower toss more than waist height. Dhoni could not play properly, but the top edge became a six. Even after 15 overs, Chennai's run rate did not cross 8.
The third ball in Russell's last over was short. But the speed of the slower was already felt by Dhoni's pool effortlessly. In the next ball, the yorker ball was seen in Dhoni's famous bottom hand shot. Dhoni took a run by pushing the ball long off the next ball. 38th ball 50! Dhoni got 35 runs from the last 13 balls. Jadeja (26 *) hit a six with Russell's full toss extra cover at the end of the innings. Chennai made 47 runs in the last 3 overs thanks to Dhoni. But the collection did not exceed 131.
Kolkata got off to a great start in the chase. Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer made 43 without losing a wicket in the powerplay. When Iyer returned with 16 runs in the seventh over, Nitish Rana took charge of the attack. Rana returned with 21 runs off Bravo in the 10th over. But Kolkata had no worries about the match. Kolkata needed 56 runs in 10 overs with 6 wickets in hand.
Ajinkya Rahane left the team for 6 runs. After Rahane's departure with 44 runs, Shreyas Iyer and Sam Billings breathed a sigh of relief. Kolkata did not get any boundary with 29 balls. Billings changed gears after hitting Bravo four times in the 16th over. Jadeja was hit with a mid-wicket six in the next over. Billings left the match with 25 runs in hand. Iyer (20 *) completed the task of taking 9 runs from 15 balls before 9 balls.
0 Comments