Chennai Super Kings captain Ravindra Jadeja rued the fact that they lost too many wickets in the powerplay overs against Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
While chasing a challenging total of 181 runs set up by PBKS after Ravindra Jadeja won the toss and decided to bowl first, Chennai found themselves in a quandary as they lost four wickets inside the first six overs.
PBKS debutant Vaibhav Arora got to ball to come back into the right-handers and impressed with his swing. Arora dismissed Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali whereas Kagiso Rabada accounted for Ruturaj Gaikwad. Odeon Smith then got rid of Ambati Rayudu and CSK were soon tottering at 36-5.
It was always going to be a herculean task for CSK to get close to the target after they lost five early wickets. Shivam Dube played a fighting knock of 57 runs but CSK lost by a huge margin of 54 runs, which was their second biggest loss in the IPL in terms of runs.
Ravindra Jadeja said in the post-match presentation, “We lost too many wickets in the powerplay, we didn’t find the momentum from ball one. We need to find a way to get better and come back stronger. (On Gaikwad) We need to give him confidence, we need to back him, we all know that he’s a very good player. We’ll definitely back him and I am sure that he’ll come good. He (Dube) has been batting so well, he batted well today, keeping him in a good frame of mind would be the key. Definitely we’ll try our best, work hard and come back stronger.”
Chennai Super Kings have got off to a horrid start as they have lost their opening three matches. Thus, the defending champions will need to reassess their planning in the upcoming matches.
The batting unit has thus far disappointed and they will need to come up with better performances. In fact, Chennai had done well to restrict PBKS to 180 as they were looking all set to score more than 200 at one stage but once again the batting unit led the team down.
Chennai will next face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Saturday.
