IPL 2023: 'I was quite surprised with the wicket' - MS Dhoni after the win over Lucknow Super Giants

MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings registered a convincing win by 12 runs over Lucknow Super Giants in their second game at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on April 4. Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and opted to bowl first. Put in to bat, Chennai Super Kings managed a massive total of 217 for 7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Both Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway got off to a flying start. They added more than 100 runs within the halfway mark and despite losing wickets in between, they kept on scoring and eventually posted a decent total on the board as well. On the other hand, while chasing, Lucknow Super Giants openers too started pretty well and had 79 runs within the powerplay. Although they also lost a few wickets in between, there was no less intent in their chasing and they scored 205 runs, eventually lost by 12 runs as well.

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After the win, MS Dhoni said as quoted by Cricbuzz: “Terrific high-scoring game. All of us were thinking how the wicket would be. It was the perfect first game that could happen. I thought it would be much slower. But it was a wicket where you could score runs. I was quite surprised with the wicket. But we’ll have to see if we can produce a wicket like this game after game.”

However, he also said that the team needs to work on their fast bowling unit. It is also noteworthy that, their pacers are giving away more runs also.

“Fast bowling we need to slightly improve. Need to bowl according to the conditions. What is important is to keep an eye as to what the opposition bowlers are doing. One more thing is they’ll have to bowl no no-balls or extra wides. Or they’ll have to play under a new captain. It will be my second warning and then I’ll be off. Only reason we’ve scored those runs is if the surface is nice,” MS Dhoni again shared.

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Meanwhile, Moeen Ali won the player of the match for his stunning spell. Although he scored 19 off 13, it was his spell that stole the limelight. He registered the figures of 4-0-26-4 as well.

Moeen Ali, Player of the Match said as quoted by Cricbuzz: “They have big hitters. Almost tried to bowl like Test cricket. Tried to spin the ball. The combination was nice (with Santner). The partnership worked well. MS knows what he’s doing. He knows when to bowl players. I do believe off-spinners can bowl to right-handers especially bowling to the big leg-side. I’m not going to bowl all the time with Jadeja there.”