Delhi Capital has great start in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, chasing the challenging target of 189 runs. The pair of Dhawan and Shaw completely dominated the proceedings and took CSK bowlers to the cleaners from the word go.
Main reason which blew CSK completely out of the match was the fact that they just couldn’t catch a break in the midst of an early onslaught in DC’s chase. At a ground like the Wankhede Stadium, with the depth they had, the Super Kings might have left some runs out in the middle because of their sedate approach at the start. CSK should have slow down the run speed by taking wicket in starting over. But in their defense of 188, the Super Kings’ bowling was encumbered by rigidity. The template last season was Deepak Chahar bowling three overs in the powerplay, with Sam Curran and Shardul Thakur bowling on either side. The spinners would come on immediately after the powerplay, and Bravo in the second half.
Barring a couple of exceptions, this held true for almost every game last season, and it held true on Saturday as well. Chahar can be counted on to get Shaw, and that regimented approach could be pulled off in that case. But on a night when the early wicket didn’t come, the Super Kings were caught out by this template: the same bowlers were being employed who went for runs early on. Bravo came on when the Capitals were 113 for 0 after 11 overs and ended up with the best economy rate for them, which made little difference.
Ricky Ponting, Prithvi Shaw’s coach at the IPL, was on commentary duties when he concisely described where the stupendous Mumbai batsman’s one fallibility lay, particularly there to be exposed in the red-ball format.
Almost as if on cue from a script, Mitchell Starc worked his way through exactly that – Shaw’s technical ineptitude against the full, inward moving ball. Two error-riddled dismissals meant the opening spot in the Test team was gone, and what India pulled off in the aftermath of the Adelaide ignominy was perhaps a bittersweet feeling for the 21-year-old.
But when Shaw wasn’t threading tiny gaps through packed offside field and flicking away straighter deliveries, Shikhar Dhawan was doing the honours of dwarfing what Suresh Raina and CSK thought was a good score [188/7] at the halfway stage.
Due to heavy dew, the off-spin trap that many oppositions have used successfully against Dhawan was not as potent on the night. Dhawan also hit sweep shots against the fast bowlers. And their field settings and the accompanying bowling lengths coming from quite a distance.
Shikhar Dhawan said in the post-match press conference, “I knew that Chennai would keep square leg and fine leg up and push the cover fielder to the boundary against me. So the thing was to get the ball to just go over those [leg side] fielders. I also knew their bowling plans. I knew they’d bowl wide yorkers to me so from there I’d come inside and try to use the pace and help it over the fielder (fine leg and square leg) at square leg.” in the post-match press conference.
Fleming also said, “Don’t underestimate how much it takes to change a philosophy of a team. We’re very much a Chennai-based side and we saw Mumbai struggled a degree last night, so they’ve got a challenge to change their tactics in Chennai and we’ve got to make sure our tactics are a little bit better with the ball in Mumbai.” He added, “Tonight, bowling second was difficult, dew was heavy so we’ve got to find a way if we’re in that position again to shut a team down. Bravo showed how to do it. We’ll learn a lot from being here for another four games.”