"About time CSK’s Ranji trophy bowling attack was found out" - Fans criticize defending champions' display with the ball in defeat against SRH
The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered a tame defeat at the hands of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday, April 5. This marks the second consecutive defeat for the defending champions as they hit a rough patch early on under Ruturaj Gaikwad's captaincy.
CSK were put into bat first, and courtesy of cameos by Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja, were able to post 165 runs on the board. At the halfway mark, it was considered as a par score, considering how slow the surface was and how CSK could control the game with their three-pronged spin attack.
However, SRH ensured that the game was over before the spinners even got a chance to introduce control. Moeen Ali dropping Travis Head at slip off the second ball of the run chase was an ominous sign of things to follow. Abhishek Sharma took on Mukesh Choudhary in the second over for a whopping 27 runs.
The new opening pair did its task by putting on 46 runs off just 16 deliveries to give SRH a massive head start in the run chase.
The CSK bowlers' misery continued, as SRH piled on 78 runs in the powerplay, which was almost half their target.
With the required rate under control, SRH were able to navigate through without any hiccups when the conditions got trickier. Aiden Markram anchored the run chase with a 50, while the duo of Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Reddy finished things off with 11 balls to spare.
Fans noted the drastic lack of quality in the bowling attack in Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman's absence. Here are some of the reactions on X:
"About time CSK’s Ranji trophy bowling attack was found out," a user wrote.
"CSK batsmen will click but they need to sort out their bowling combination," former player S Badrinath opined.
"The bowling in powerplay today was awful to say the least," another user highlighted the new ball bowling as the reason behind the loss.
"We conceded too many in the batting powerplay" - CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad
Ruturaj Gaikwad admitted that the surface did not change much over the course of the contest, and he believed 170-175 to be a par score.
"It was a black soil pitch, so we expected the pitch to be slower, but it became slower and slower, and they used the boundary size well. We conceded too many in the batting PP, one dropped catch and one expensive over. Still, to take them to the 19th over was a great effort. I thought anything around 170-175 would've been a good total for us," Gaikwad said during the post-match presentation
CSK will return to Chepauk to face the so-far unbeaten Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday, April 7.