Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul, who is in some form, revealed the strategy they used to pin down Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday (April 15) night at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.
Meanwhile, Dhoni almost pulled off the sensational victory single-handedly but fell four runs short. Mohit Sharma seeing Dhoni struggling with a severe back bowled outside off-stump channel as Dhoni was suffering to reach out to it.
Rahul revealed that it was the plan to bowl wide yorkers because he was struggling with his back.
“The plan was to bowl wide yorkers to MS Dhoni because he was struggling with his back and we felt like he couldn’t reach out to many. Whether good back or a bad back, if you pitch it in his arc he is still going to hit it miles. It was good learning for our bowling attack. Like I said, it’s still early stages in the IPL, we will learn what lengths are good for our bowlers and they’ll learn from their mistakes,” Rahul said.
Chasing a massive target of 198 in 20 overs, Chennai almost chased down the target while banking on Dhoni’s 44-ball unbeaten 79-run innings
Meanwhile, previously, Punjab banked on Chris Gayle (66) and Rahul (27) opening partnership to inch closer to 200. Rahul admitted they will play an aggressive brand of cricket throughout the ongoing tournament.
“The plan was very clear – the batsmen will keep going for the boundary and keep looking to get runs. We’ve said this before the tournament started, that that’s the kind of cricket we want to play – very aggressive. Sometimes, like in Bangalore, it may not come off but it’s okay, we’ll still keep going there and try to get boundaries and sixes. That was the plan,” he added.
Praising Chris Gayle Rahul said that it’s an advantage to have Gayle in such a form. He also admitted that if he continues to go like this, there is no stopping him.
Talking about Mujeeb Ur Rahman, KL Rahul admitted that they held him back for a new batsman. However, the situation propelled us to go with other options.
“We were thinking that we will bowl Mujeeb against a new batsman. We were hoping that we would get Mahi bhai out somewhere in the 14th or the 15th over. Then, whoever came, we were holding him back for Bravo and the other batsmen to follow. He’s a mystery bowler, not everyone can pick him and for a new batsman, it’s even harder. Mahi bhai had already played a couple of overs so we thought we’ll maybe hold him back for later. If we somehow managed to get Mahi bhai out then he will come into the attack. We had already bowled Yuvi in the eighth or the ninth over, so one bowler could have gotten away with three overs,” he concluded.
Moreover, KXIP will play Sunrisers Hyderabad at home on April 19.
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