MS Dhoni: “We did well to restrict them to 170 runs. What really let us down was the batsmanship. I feel especially when we are chasing, you know what’s required on the board and what the bowlers are doing. At times you have to curb your instinct and try to see what the situation is demanding rather than just play your shot. If the batsmanship had been slightly better, maybe in the last few overs we wouldn’t have needed many runs. We got off to a good start, we had wickets in hand and the wicket kept getting better.
It’s just that we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. If you take care of those things, chasing is more about calculation and batting first is more about instinct. As a batter in the middle, you have to decide on those things. We need to keep looking at what went wrong. It’s easy to get distracted by how many points you have. It’s the process that matters more than where you are positioned in the points table. If you take care of those things, then the points table will take care of itself.”
Indian Premier League 2022 Points Table
Glenn Maxwell: “It was a really good bowling effort. We felt there was enough tackiness in the wicket to exploit with our spinners and then for our quicks to hold their nerve at the back end with some really powerful death hitters, they did a great job to finish that game. With the way that Moeen Ali and Jadeja bowled in the first innings, it showed that the finger spinners were getting a bit of hold and getting a little bit of grip out of the surface.
For me it was just about trying to pitch the ball on the stumps as much as I can and try to vary the seam angle to try and get that variable spin out of the wicket. It was helpful to have a couple of lefties out there where I was able to turn the ball away from the bat and just give us another option at the back end as well. [Bowling around the wicket to the right-handers] I think it just shuts down one side of the ground.
With the Robin [Uthappa wicket], if I do that from over the stumps, it becomes more of a pull shot for him which is more of his strength. To be able to cramp him up and not give him a free swing was key at that stage. We’ve gone through troughs in this tournament so hopefully we can ride this momentum. Winning momentum is hard to stop and we feel like our batters are starting to hit the middle of the bat more and more. With our bowlers starting to gel, we feel like we’re starting to go in the right direction. Hopefully we haven’t left it too late and we can peak right towards finals and find away into that top four and do some damage in the finals.”
Indian Premier League 2022 Fixture
Faf du Plessis: “We definitely needed that, just for the confidence in the group. The guys have been doing some good things behind the scenes but you have to do it out in the middle. To put up a decent total today on a wicket with a bit of challenge towards it, I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction with the batting lineup and confidence the guys are getting. With the bowling department, we’ve been very good throughout the tournament so it was just a case of backing it up with some good runs. I thought 165 was a par score so anything above that would be nice to get.
The Powerplay was probably going to be the easiest time to score because the wicket had a little bit of stop to it. They had a good start in the Powerplay, but once we got two wickets, I thought we were excellent. Energy in the field was amazing, guys diving all over the place, great catching and some good bowling as well. We’re very lucky to have experience and guys who captain their own teams. It’s great for me, when there’s some questions to be asked that I can lean on a really good senior player group. The communication is getting better on the field now that we know each other a bit better.
We just want to keep improving in the batting department. We want one of the top four to bat through and get that 70+ score because we’ve got enough power around that can come in. So it’s just that consistency around the batting unit and keep making sure we play a positive brand of cricket and not be too defensive. [Asked about net run rate] Once you get an opportunity in a match when you can think about it, then you think about it. But it’s about making sure we get the wins. If we get the wins, we’ll be there or thereabouts. I never think about it too far ahead.”
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings Highlights today, Wednesday 4-5-2022. 49th Match (N), Tata Indian Premier League from Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
CSK win the toss and choose to bat second.
Royal Challengers Bangalore team: 1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Shahbaz Ahmed, 6 Mahipal Lomror, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Josh Hazlewood
Chennai Super Kings team: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Dwaine Pretorius, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Simarjeet Singh, 11 Mukesh Choudhary
Indian Premier League 2022 Teams
Harshal Patel is Player of the Match:
“I think in the first over, I was trying to bowl slower balls into the pitch but I floated a couple just under the bat and those are the ones that went to the boundary. For the last four or five games. I’ve been trying to concede two less boundaries in my spell but be a little more tighter with my execution and sequencing. When I look at my last four or five games, I didn’t have as much impact as I did in the first half.
So that’s what
I’ve been trying to correct and very happy I was able to come back the way I did. [On changing ends] To both the left-handers, we decided I would bowl wider of off stump and that allowed me to use the bigger side. So that was the rationale to changing ends. You need to be aware of what the conditions are and what the batters are trying to do and what areas they are trying to score in. Most importantly what are the deliveries you can execute and you feel confident about in that situation.
So you take all
these calculations in your mind and at the top of your mark, you need to be absolutely clear with your option and your field placing. As long as you have clarity at the top of your mark, you should be fine. [Asked about slower balls on different pitches] Sequencing, like I said, when people are waiting for the slower balls, how do I make sure I don’t give them slower balls. So that’s when my hard lengths, bouncers and yorkers come in. I have not been able to use a lot this season, especially the yorkers, but it’s something I want to bring back in the second half of the IPL.”
Head to head
Total matches played: 30
RCB Won: 10
CSK Won: 19
Match Timings: 14:00 GMT | 19:30 Local
Umpires – KN Ananthapadmanabhan, Michael Gough
TV Umpires – Anil Chaudhary
Match Referee – Narayanan Kutty
Reserve Umpire – Vinod Seshan
Match number – Tata IPL 2022 – Seasone 15, 48th Match
