Asked to bat first, CSK started strongly, with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway providing a solid opening partnership. Gaikwad played a brilliant knock of 57 off 31 balls, including four sixes and three fours, while Conway scored 47 off 29 balls, including two sixes and five fours. Shivam Dube, Ambati Rayudu, and MS Dhoni also contributed with quick-fire cameos as the Chennai-based team posted a daunting total of 217/7 in their 20 overs. Meanwhile, Mark Wood and Ravi Bishnoi picked up three wickets each for Lucknow.
In response, LSG got off to a shaky start, with KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda departing early. However, Kyle Mayers provided some hope with a brilliant knock of 53 off just 22 balls. Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni also chipped in with important contributions, but it wasn’t enough to chase down the set target, and they fell short by 12 runs.
Moeen Ali was the star performer for CSK, with his all-round performance earning him the ‘Player of the Match’ award. He scored a quickfire 19 off 13 balls and also picked up four wickets for just 26 runs in his quota of four overs.
Although Chennai won the match, Dhoni was not happy with the performance of his bowlers, who delivered as many as thirteen wides and three no-balls. The CSK skipper expressed his dissent in the post-match presentation and issued a warning to his bowlers for fifteen extra deliveries in the game.
“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,” said Dhoni.
Notably, this was after a long gap of four years that the Chennai crowd witnessed CSK play a match at the Chepauk ground. Speaking about the behaviour of the pitch and the return of IPL to the venue, Dhoni further said that it was a perfect game with a jam-packed stadium.
“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,” added the former India skipper.
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