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Home » Cricket Home » News » IPL 2019 | Not a Pitch We Would Like to Play on: Dhoni

IPL 2019 | Not a Pitch We Would Like to Play on: Dhoni

Despite a convincing seven-wicket win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday (March 23), Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni criticised the pitch at MA Chidambaram stadium for the opening match of the IPL 2019.

IPL 2019 | Not a Pitch We Would Like to Play on: Dhoni

Despite a convincing seven-wicket win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday (March 23), Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni criticised the pitch at MA Chidambaram stadium for the opening match of the IPL 2019.

"I wasn't sure about the wicket but we were really surprised by how slow it was. In the practice game it didn't turn as much but you usually score 20-30 runs more in a practice match than a normal match," said Dhoni in the post-match presentation ceremony.

"The wicket definitely needs to get better. You can create a lot of trouble even chasing 80, 90, 100 runs if you have quality spinners in the line-up. Ours is a batting side where batsman like to play their shots. Other teams have good spinners as well and this isn't a pitch we would like."

Harbhajan Singh was named man-of-the-match for his sensational bowling figures of 3/20, which also included the wickets of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

"I would like to give credit to my daughter and wife. You can't ask for a better start to the tournament. They have a lot of left-handers and Fleming told me that I would be bowling in the powerplay. Hopefully I can carry on from here," he said.

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli said it wasn't an ideal start for the side but that it was a good thing that such a performance got out of the way early in the tournament.

"No team would want to start like this," said Kohli at the post-match presentation. "The good thing is a game like this is out of the way [now] rather than [at] a very important stage of the tournament. We'd rather have this early on and get done with it, that's how we want to look at it."

"We didn't bat well but the attitude on the field was good. When our time comes we will be ready to strike. I thought 140-150 would be an ideal score on this pitch. Really impressed by Saini, he is touching 150 kmph and he is going to be a lethal weapon for us in the tournament," Kohli added.

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RankTeamPointsRating
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3 New Zealand 3716 116
4 Australia 4344 111
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