Chennai Super Kings were back to winning track at their home ground on Monday night, as they beat Lucknow Super Giants by 12 runs in the Indian Premier League. However, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not happy with the bowling performance of his side and expressed his disappointment.
MS Dhoni warned his bowlers not to bowl no-balls and too many wides in their upcoming IPL matches, or else they will have to play under a new captain.
"They'll have to bowl no no-balls and less wides. We are bowling too many extra deliveries and need to cut them out otherwise they'll be playing under a new captain," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
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In the match CSK bowled 16 extra deliveries with three no balls and 13 wides.
The bowling duo of Deepak Chahar (0/55) and Tushar Deshpande (2/45) bowled five and three wides respectively to Dhoni’s disappointment. Deshpande also added to the no-ball tally with four no-balls.
The CSK also bowled poorly in the powerplay as LSG batters tried to score as many runs as they could in their pursuit of the 218 target.
Dhoni said that his side's fast bowling will need slight improvement and bowl according to the conditions to force the batters to hit over the fielders risking their wicket.
However, Ruturaj Gaikwad (57 off 31) and Devon Conway’s (47 off 29) 110 runs opening stand, which led to the team posting a mammoth target helped CSK keep the match in their hands.
Further, spinner Moeen Ali took four wickets and guided CSK to a 12-run victory at their fortress, the MA Chidambaram stadium in their first home match.
Dhoni said that he was surprised by the pitch which produced a lot of runs while he was expecting the match to be slow.
On the other hand, LSG Captain KL Rahul said his team did not get the ideal start after winning the toss and opting to bowl.
In the post-match presentation, Rahul said that LSG got off to a good start in the second innings, but they lost a few wickets on the way which added pressure on the batsmen who eventually got caught at the boundary trying to hit sixes.
