Dhoni, Kohli slam quality of track
chennai — The IPL 2019 opener turned out to be a low-scoring contest and rival captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli expressed their dissatisfaction over the slowness of the Chepauk track.
Royal Challengers Bangalore were all out for 70 in 17.1 overs, a target that Chennai Super Kings achieved in 17.4 overs to win the match by seven wickets.
Despite finishing on the winning side, Dhoni made it clear that he would expect better wickets in the upcoming games. “I never expected the wicket to play how it actually played. It was too slow. We were really surprised by how slow the wicket was. It reminded me of a Champions League wicket in 2011 after we won the IPL.
“The wicket definitely needs to be much better, even with dew it was spinning big,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony here last night.
Kohli, who is also the Indian captain, on his part said: “The wicket looked much better than it played. No one thought the wicket’s going to play the way it played. We thought somewhere 140-150 would be an ideal score because of the dew factor later on. A scrappy sort of start to the league. That is what you get when you have a wicket like that.
“But either team would have struggled batting first. I don’t think either team had control over it. The pitch was under the covers for four days.”
“I don’t think either of the team would have enjoyed that kind of a pitch, especially in T20 cricket where guys want to get runs and put the runs on the board or chase scores down.” Dhoni said. —