Legspinner Ravi Bishnoi of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) believes captain Rishabh Pant had his reasons for not getting a fourth over against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), despite returns of 3-0-18-2.
At home against CSK, LSG was defending 166, but they lost after Nicholas Pooran had a rare off-day. Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni took out LSG’s pace bowlers in the last overs, finishing the job with three balls remaining.
At the post-match news conference, Bishnoi stated, “I went to the wicket a couple of times [to check] and I think he had plans in place he wanted to execute, but I didn’t really talk [to Pant] about it.” “The captain has a greater understanding of the situation since he is in a better position and takes wickets as well. I believe he made the choice he believed to be the best one.
“He was clear in his mind and it’s better in such tense situations that the captain thinks with a clear mind.”
Nine of Bishnoi’s eighteen balls had been dots, and he had removed Rahul Tripathi and Ravindra Jadeja in the ninth and thirteenth overs, respectively. The less seasoned Digvesh Rathi and part-time spinner Aiden Markram completed their quotas, but he did not bowl his fourth.
After the match, Pant remarked, “I considered bowling him [Bishnoi] that [fourth] over a lot.”
However, after talking with numerous players, we decided not to let him bowl. We wanted to delve deeper, but today we were unable to do so.”
By the 15th over, when CSK required 56 runs from 30 balls, Dhoni had just joined Dube, and Rathi and Markram had completed bowling together. Pant may have been forced to make a decision by Dube’s appearance and his reputation as a six-hitter off spin.
At that point, Avesh Khan had three overs remaining, while Shardul Thakur had two. In misty conditions, Pant gave Avesh the 16th, which went for 12 runs. Even though many captains have used spin against Dhoni in the final overs, particularly in CSK’s last three chases, Pant kept to his pace-bowling options when LSG requested a ball change in accordance with the new IPL rule.
In Guwahati, Sanju Samson handed Maheesh Theekshana the 18th over when CSK needed 45 runs from 18 and Theekshana gave up just six runs. When CSK required 72 from 18, Axar Patel bowled himself in the 17th over, his first of the day, while conceding just five runs. With 68 to win from 24 and just nine runs conceded, Yuzvendra Chahal was given the 17th over by Shreyas Iyer in CSK’s final chase. Dhoni was unable to knock any boundaries against the spinners in either of these situations.
Dhoni has hit 14 fours and nine sixes in 243 balls while striking at just 94.23 against spin since the 2020 Indian Premier League.
Perhaps since the set Dube would have looked like the greater threat, Pant ultimately opted to bowl solely pace to Dhoni and Dube on Monday. However, as soon as Dhoni gained speed, he blasted two consecutive fours to conclude the 16th over, smacked his next ball from Avesh for four, then hit a slower delivery from Thakur on the leg side for six even as one hand left the bat. Dube began Thakur’s over with a four and six to the deep-third boundary, and it turned out that Thakur had also overstepped for the second ball, giving CSK the victory when 24 was needed from 12.
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