Moeen Ali, Super King’s allrounder: “[Magic formula] We’ve got experience. I’ve come new into the side but the guys all just know their roles. [Consistency in selection] An amazing place to play. You know that if you play you’ll get a run. It helps your own ability and batting mindset – makes it easy for us to play out there. [Test retirement] I’m very happy. Walking away from Test cricket, the greatest format, but I felt I had enough of it. The next step is to play as much white-ball I can and win trophies. They have Roy, Williamson, Rashid, so they can win the game too.”
Deepak Chahar, Super King’s seamer: “The last season in Dubai had a lot of problems for us with combinations. Few of us got Covid and then we couldn’t play as well after quarantine. This year our balance is better. The first half results definitely help in the second half since you start off in the top two from the start. [Bowling unit] We used the experience of playing in Dubai last season to use it this time. Moeen Bhai, Jadeja is there. Hazlewood is also there, who was not available in the first half.
[When do you make your bowling plan changes?] You always have planned before the game start – there are a couple of plans ready depending on the ball’s swing or how the batter is approaching the game. I try for swing in the first few overs and after that we re-assess. Of course, the different UAE surfaces have different properties. [This match?] Every team is equal in this competition. We want to win to secure the top two. Teams like Sunrisers are most dangerous because they have nothing to lose.”
Chennai Super Kings vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Highlights today, Thursday 30-09-2021 – 44th Match (N), Indian Premier League season 14th from Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
MS Dhoni win the toss and will bowl first.
Dhoni: “Looks like a fresh wicket. It tends to slow down a bit as you play. But it may not be as slow. It’s a very difficult thing to pinpoint [the reason for our transition]. When it comes to this year, all the boys have been brilliant. A lot of players have been playing international cricket. Taking one game at a time really helps… so we are not thinking about that [the playoffs].” Bravo in for Curran.
Williamson: “Looks better than some of those surfaces. For us it is about to build on the strong performances, so we are going with the same side. We want to play as good cricket as we can, and we have four games left to do that. That is our opportunity.” Sunrisers are unchanged.
IPL 2021 Points Table
Chennai Super Kings team: 1 Faf du Plessis, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
Sunrisers Hyderabad team: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Wriddhiman Saha, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Priyam Garg, 5 Abhishek Sharma, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Siddharth Kaul, 11 Sandeep Sharma.
Match Timings: 14:00 GMT | 18:00 Local
Umpires – Nitin Menon, Yeshwant Barde
TV Umpires – Michael Gough
Match Referee – Prakash Bhatt
Reserve Umpire – Saiyed Khalid
Match number – Indian Premier League 2021 Match No 44th
Williamson: “Not quite [enough runs]. We were still competitive. It was fantastic, and it is important we keep bringing that. At the end of the powerplay, we were 40-something… The cameos from boys in the lower-middle order gave us something… So we need to look at how to win games. It is hard when you end up on the losing side. Chennai played really well. It looked challenging and variable, and in the end, if you can inch out another 10-15 runs… It is tough, it isn’t a W next to your name…”
Post match presentation
Dhoni: “It means a lot because the last time in the post-match presentation I had, I said we want to come back strong… You keep learning out of it, and that is what we have done this year even though we played the first half [of the season] earlier. Every credit must be given to the players and the support staff. It wasn’t a wicket where it was turning or stopping a lot. But there was a good bounce. Bowlers varied their pace and length very well… That is what I told them before the start of the game as well. The execution was there. [The nature of the wicket changed in the second half?] Probably some dew… But I don’t think the bounce changed at all. The fans have been great from the start. I can proudly say on behalf of CSK that we are really proud of the fans.”
Hazlewood is the Player of the Match: “Very satisfying… Feel like I have been learning every game. [Roy] is obviously a guy who sets the game for them and comes hard… We have been working really hard as a group. We have obviously been together and train together. We have some seniors like DJ [Bravo] there…”
