By IANS,
Chennai : Chennai Super Kings will continue their aggressive approach and their defeat to Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was not the “end of the tournament”, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Friday night .
Reacting to his team’s eight-wicket loss, their first in five matches in the Twenty20 league, Dhoni asserted that the Gautam Gambhir-Virender Sehwag partnership took the game away from the Super Kings.
“It was Sehwag’s day and there was not much we could do although he did give us a few chances. Both he and Gambhir are quality batsmen and tonight, they played extremely well,” Dhoni said.
Regarding his own team’s overall performances, Dhoni said he was quite happy with his bowlers while marking out off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for special mention.
“Tonight’s defeat would give us time to think as to where we went wrong and how we can correct our mistakes. I am very confident that we will bounce back in time for our next game (against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur, Sunday),” he said.
On opener Stephen Fleming’s early dismissal, Dhoni asserted: “Fleming is a class player and he should not be judged on the basis of just one innings, and I am sure he will get among runs soon.”
About his team’s strategy, the skipper said there might not be major changes. “We will continue to play aggressively. Perhaps, we might push Suresh Raina up the order,” he said.
Meanwhile, representing the Daredevils, Glenn McGrath, the former Aussie fast bowler, complimented the bowling attack saying they made good use of the bounce and carry that the pitch afforded to restrict the Super Kings.
“Overall, we did a good job in both bowling and batting. The target was pretty decent, but Gambhir and Sehwag stuck to their task to give us a solid start. We have four quality pace bowlers and that provides us an edge,” he said.
Man of the Match Sehwag, on his part, admitted that the pitch was tailor-made for strokeplay. “It was a fantastic pitch and the ball was coming on nicely. We could afford to play our shots,” he said.