IPL 2021, CSK vs MI: MS Dhoni hailed Dwayne Bravo and Ruturaj Gaikwad after their brilliant batting displays during Chennai Super Kings’ win against Mumbai Indians in Match 30.
Having led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to win against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 30 on Sunday, MS Dhoni lavished praise on Ruturaj Gaikwad and Dwayne Bravo for their fantastic batting displays at the Dubai International Stadium. Despite an early collapse, CSK managed to post 156 for six in 20 overs with Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring an unbeaten knock of 88 runs off 58 balls. Meanwhile, Bravo also slammed a quickfire knock of 23 runs in eight deliveries in the latter stages of their innings. Mumbai could only muster 136 runs chasing a target of 157.
Speaking during the post-match press conference, Dhoni said, “At 30 for 4, you want to put up a respectable score, I felt Gaikwad and Bravo got us more than what we expected. We thought of 140, to get close to 160 was tremendous.”
Dhoni also said that the wicket was “two-paced”, which made CSK start slowly against MI. He also explained that after Rayudu’s injury, it was hard for the team to bounce back.
“The wicket was two-paced, slightly slow to start off. Also, it’s difficult if you’re batting lower down, if you don’t get a chance to see what is happening, you want to go hard. Rayudu got injured, so it was tough to come back from there but we batted sensibly and finished superbly. It was sensible for one batter to bat right through to the end”, he said.
The win also helped CSK put in a good start to the tournament’s UAE leg. Chennai have climbed to top of the IPL 2021 Points Table, with 12 points in eight matches. Meanwhile, Mumbai are still fourth with eight points from eight games.