Ruturaj Gaikwad and Moeen Ali propelled MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to their first win of the new Indian Premier League (IPL) season on Monday. Returning to their den, Chepauk, for the first time in almost four years, Dhoni's CSK edged past Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in a high-scoring contest on match 6 of the IPL 2023 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Reflecting on CSK's first win of the new season, Dhoni issued a fresh warning to Chennai bowlers as the legendary cricketer was not entirely pleased with the bowling performance of the Yellow Brigade. Sharing his honest admission after CSK's impressive win over LSG, Dhoni pointed out that his bowlers were not disciplined enough in the 12-run win at Chepauk.
The Deepak Chahar-starrer bowling attack bowled three no-balls and as many as 13 wides in their first home game of the new season. "They'll have to bowl no no-balls and less wides. We are bowling too many extra deliveries and need to cut them out otherwise they'll be playing under a new captain," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.
Watch Video: MS Dhoni's ‘they’ll play under a new captain…' warning to CSK bowlers
The former India skipper and CSK icon also passed his verdict on the Chepauk pitch which produced an absolute run-fest in the 16th season of the cash-rich league. Quick-fire knocks from Devon Conway (47), Gaikwad (57) and Ambati Rayudu (27) helped Dhoni's CSK in recording the highest score of the ongoing IPL season at Chepauk. Delivering the goods with the ball in the high-scoring game, Moeen Ali bagged four wickets as CSK restricted LSG to 205 for 7 in 20 overs.
{{/usCountry}}The former India skipper and CSK icon also passed his verdict on the Chepauk pitch which produced an absolute run-fest in the 16th season of the cash-rich league. Quick-fire knocks from Devon Conway (47), Gaikwad (57) and Ambati Rayudu (27) helped Dhoni's CSK in recording the highest score of the ongoing IPL season at Chepauk. Delivering the goods with the ball in the high-scoring game, Moeen Ali bagged four wickets as CSK restricted LSG to 205 for 7 in 20 overs.
{{/usCountry}}"It was a terrific game, high-scoring game. All of us were thinking how the wicket will be. We had that doubt. It was a high-scoring game. Overall I think it was a perfect first game that happened and it was a full house for the first game in 5 or 6 years since we've been here. I thought it will be much slower. It was a wicket where you could score runs but overall it got a bit slower. We'll have to see how it plays over the next six games at home but hopefully we can score here," Dhoni said.
Playing a small cameo in CSK's win over LSG, Dhoni smashed back-to-back sixes against Mark Wood in the final over. Dhoni's six-hitting exploits also paved the way for the CSK skipper to rewrite history in the world's richest T20 league. The 41-year-old became the seventh batter in the history of IPL to complete 5,000 runs. The four-time IPL-winning captain has amassed 5,004 runs in 236 matches.