IPL 2019 | MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli disappointed with track in Chennai for season opener

It was not exactly the kind of start the organisers would have wanted for the 12th edition of the IPL as the opening encounter between CSK turned out to be a lop-sided affair at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After RCB were put into bat first, they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as CSK spinners ripped through the batting line-up and bowled them out for a mere 70 runs inside 18 overs.

Chennai batsmen also had a difficult time at the wicket but managed to keep wickets intact and chased down the total in the 18th over with seven wickets in hand. After the game, both the captains spoke about the kind of wicket and expressed their disappointment during the presentation ceremony.

“We were really surprised by how slow the wicket was. It reminded me of a Champions League wicket in 2011 after we won the IPL. The wicket definitely needs to be much better, even with dew it was spinning big,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation, reported PTI.

RCB skipper Kohli stated, “The wicket looked much better than it played. We thought 140-150 would be an ideal score. A scrappy sort of start but either team would have struggled batting first.”

CSK spinners Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja picked up eight wickets in between them to restrict the opponents for a miniscule total in the Cauvery Derby. Dhoni also underlined the fact that yesterday’s track was the one where genuine spinners would have done well. 

“80, 90, 100 is really low-scoring and if you have geniune spinners in your line-up you can create a lot of trouble. We need to score runs as well, ours is a batting attack where batsmen like to play their shots and you can’t control the toss which means that we might have to bowl first in matches as well,” Dhoni explained. 

“Other teams have good spinners as well and this isn’t the pitch we are looking forward to.”